The Feudal Era Across the Street
by CrazyDreamerGirl
Summary: The YYH gang are going to move to another city for an undercover mission. As the title says, the Feudal era is across the street. Kagome has got some more help in her fight against Naraku. Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha crossover.
1. Moving

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hello everyone. I decided to make a Yu Yu Hakusho and Inuyasha crossover.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly, I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one.

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. No Yaoyi, however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 1: Moving**

A teenage boy with black hair slicked back was walking through the entrance hall of Spirit World. It was Yusuke Urameshi, Spirit Detective of the Earth. He was called yet again to save Koenma's butt. Koenma is the ruler of Spirit World, but his father's authority is only one higher than his. Anyway, something had happened or Koenma had messed up and they needed him to set everything right.

Kuwabara and Botan were with him as well. Kuwabara was an orange haired, tall teenage boy. He was the one that always picked a fight with Yusuke and Hiei, but that did not stop him from coming along. Botan, on the other hand, looked like a seemingly normal girl, except for the fact that she was the Pilot of the River Styx, or the grim reaper as she is more commonly known as. She has blue colored hair and pink eyes. She was wearing her normal reaping clothes, her pink kimono.

"What does the toddler what this time?" Yusuke complained, following Botan down the throatlike hallway of Spirit World.

"I honestly don't know," the perky, blue-haired girl replied.

"Guys, this place creeps me out," Kuwabara said, looking around the strange hallway.

"That's right! You've never been to Spirit World, Kuwabara," Botan said. They reached a room revealing many busy ogres. They were shouting things about someone dying ahead of schedule. "It got so much livelier," Kuwabara mumbled.

"Hey, Kuwabara, I don't think you want to be left behind 'cuz their big bad guard dog is coming for its lunch," Yusuke shouted teasingly.

"We don't have a guard dog," Botan whispered.

"I know that and you know that, but he doesn't," Yusuke whispered back. Kuwabara caught up to them quickly. His knees were shaking. Maybe this was why he liked cats better. But he did reveal he was afraid of mice in Maze Castle.

Botan opened the door to Koenma's office. Kurama and Hiei were waiting for them. Kurama was a red haired teen with green eyes, but in fact he was really a silver fox demon known as Youko Kurama. He was hurt badly and he had assumed soul form and was reborn as a human. Hiei was a fire demon. He had spiky black hair with a white starbust. His red eyes glared at Yusuke and Kuwabara. He was not the most friendly of the bunch. Koenma was pacing back and forth. He looked very worried. He was sucking his pacifier rather quickly.

"So what demon am I supposed to take down this time?" Yusuke asked, breaking the silence.

"The idiots finally came," Hiei said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey!" Kuwabara and Yusuke shouted in unison.

"Argue later. This mission must be important if we're called to Spirit World to be briefed about," Kurama said calmly, which was enough to quiet them down.

"Thank you, Kurama," Koenma said. He motioned to the three that newly arrived to sit. Koenma sat in his big chair. "Like Kurama said, this mission is very important. Spirit intelligence has informed us that a portal has been located that connects our time and the feudal era. The name of the girl that discovered it and has been using it often is Kagome Higurashi."

A picture of her popped up on the screen. "She's hot!" Kuwabara blurted out. Yusuke hit him.

"You have Yukina, remember?"  
"Oh, yeah," he said and a slight blush formed on his face.

"Anyway," Koenma said, eyeing him strangely, "her mendling in the past has disturbed the time stream. Even if she stops, that won't end the damage. It is believed that the Shikon Jewel has been shattered and Kagome has only a couple shards. Most of it is believed to be in the possession of a strange demon."

"And we need to do what exactly?" Hiei asked impatiently.

"And what's this _Shikon Jewel_?" Yusuke asked.

"The Shikon Jewel can multiply a demon's power by up to ten times. It was believed that it was burned along with it's guardian many centuries ago," Kurama explained.

"How do you know that?" asked Kuwabara.

"I'm a thief, and as a thief, you have to know these things." Kurama smirked.

"Now, answering Hiei's question, all of you need to get the _whole_ jewel back and defeat any demons along the way that have a shard in their possession," Koenma said.

"Fine, let's get this over with," Yusuke said, standing up.

"I'm not finished!" Koenma shouted. Yusuke was about to retort, but thought not to. He wanted to get this mission over with as soon as possible.

"All of you will be moving to Tokyo for this mission. The house you will be staying at will be located across the street of the Higurashi Shrine. Since I don't trust any of you to be left alone, other than Kurama, Genkai will be coming with you," Koenma said.

"Then where's the old hag? She should be here too," Yusuke asked.

"She already knows about it. She was the one that found out about the portal and she bought the house already," Koenma explained.

"When will we leave?" Kurama asked.

"You will tomorrow due to the importance of this mission. That means you must pack and tell your families today. Don't ask how long this will take because I don't know," Koenma said.

"Why do we have to go tomorrow?" Kuwabara complained.

"Because the girl only comes back for a couple days and leaves for weeks at a time. She just came back a couple hours ago. I have no idea how long she'll stay, so you must go now! Meet Genkai at her place by 6 a.m. tomorrow," Koenma said.

"Six! Do you have any idea how many stairs she has?" Yusuke complained.

"Yes, I do. If you're late, Genkai will make you suffer. Now leave!" Koenma said, wiping the sweat from his brow. They filed out. "I need an aspirin," Koenma said to himself.

They entered the throatlike hallway once again and Kuwabara asked, fearfully, "Hey, guys, what about the guard dog?'

"What guard dog?' Kurama asked.

"Spirirt World doesn't have any guard dogs, you brainless baboon," Hiei said coldly.

"Wait, that means... Urameshi, I'm gonna kill you!" Kuwabara shouted, chasing after him. Yusuke was laughing so hard he was crying. He almost tripped.

"They are so immature," Hiei said.

"I don't think they'll ever grow up," Botan said. Kurama sighed.

Later that night, Kuwabara was about to break the news to his sister, Shizuru. His sister had found out about Kuwabara's little adventures when they were watching the tape about Yukina. "Hey, sis! I've gotta tell you something." He scratched the back of his head.

"What?" Shizuru asked.

"Well, me and the gang are moving to Tokyo for a mission. And, um, take care of Eikichi for me."

"Whatever."

Kuwabara did not believe that plain and uninterested response he received. He added one last thing, just in case. "Don't skin her."

"Whatever," she dully replied. He sweat dropped.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was looking for his mom in their apartment. How anyone can dirty up an apartment in such a small amout of time is anyone's guess. Anyway, he found her drunk, again. Her brown hair covered part of her face. Her face was a little red from drinking.

"Yuuuusuke!" Atsuko slurred.

"Mom, have you been partying again?"

"Just a little," she said and waved a bottle of alcohol in front of his face.

"Mom, I have something important to tell you," he said seriously.  
"What?"  
"I'm going to have to move to Tokyo for awhile. I have to transfer to the school there."

"School? I thought you haaated school," Atsuko said, slurring. She was getting a bit tipsy and so Yusuke helped her onto the couch. He cleared some of the trash off before sitting her down.

"Well, it's either that or juvie," Yusuke said, while sitting down next to her.

"Juvie? Don't leave me again!" she looked into his brown eyes and saw he was serios. "Okay, you can go, but please call so I know you're alive!" She began crying. He did not like seeing her like this.

"Oh, Mom, it's gonna be okay." The doorbell rang and Yusuke went to open it. It was Keiko. She helped him a lot when he was dead and he had promised to tell her when he would go on a mission.

"Keiko, hi, I need to tell you something," he began, scratching his head. He looked up into her eyes.

"Shizuru called me and told me. I came here to tell you good-bye," she replied sadly.

Kurama, or Shuichi, was trying to think of an excuse for his mother. His hands were folded and he was leaning forward on the couch. The only sound was the ticking of the clock. Then, his mother came in.

"Mother, I need to tell you something," he said, getting up.

"What is it, Shuichi?" Shiori asked.

"Well, I was informed today that I would have a chance to study with the famous Genkai ."

"Oh, that's wonderful. I've heard good things about her."

"The thing is, I must go with her to Tokyo tomorrow and I'm worried about you."

"Don't worry about me. Go. This is a wonderful learning experience for you."

"I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I'll try to call as much as possible," Kurama said. He had at least partly told her the truth this time.

The next morning, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, and Genkai were waiting for Yusuke. The elderly woman with rusty pink hair looked at the clock and said, "He has thirty seconds to get here or he'll be late." With five seconds to go, Yusuke burst in. "You got lucky there dimwit. A couple more seconds and you would've been mine to torture," Genkai said.

'Too many stairs," Yusuke panted.

"Let's go back down," she said. Yusuke groaned.

They reached their new house in a couple hours. "This place is great!" Kuwabara exclaimed, looking at it from the outside. "As Koenma told you, the Higurashi Shrine is right there," Genkai said, pointing to it. About four people came up to them. The old man went up to Genkai and said, "It's you! You're Genkai! Can I have your autograph?"

"No, and who are you?" Genkai asked, already disliking the new neighbors.

"I'm the caretaker of the Higurashi Shrine. The name's **- - - -**," he replied. (I don't think they ever mentioned his name so for now that means to insert his name.)

"Hello, my name is **- - - -**. I'm his daughter and these are my children, Sota and Kagome," she said pointing to the kids. (I don't think they said her name either so same thing.) There was a little boy about eight or nine and a girl that appeared fourteen. She had long black hair with brown eyes.

"Hey," Sota said.

"Hello," Kagome said.

"My name is Genkai and the one in black is Hiei, the redhead is Shuichi, the tall, ugly one is Kuwabra, and the dimwit here is Yusuke."

"I'm gonna get you one day, Grandma."

"I'm not your grandma for the hundredth time."

"What are you doing here, if you don't mind me asking," Kagome's grandpa asked.

"Well, these four are my students and I thought it would benefit them if they saw an actual shrine. It is a good place to hone any pathetic spiritual power they may have."

"We're not pathetic!" Kuwabara protested. Genkai glared at him.

"We have to go, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask," Mrs. Higurashi said and they left.

"I guess that means they don't mind us asking about the feudal era in their yard," Yusuke commented.

Genkai hit Kuwabara on the back of his head. "What did you do that for?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"You almost blew our cover when you said our senses aren't pathetic," Hiei said, "The girl has some sort of power."

"I sensed a strange power coming from the girl as well. It was almost like she was a priestess, but not exactly," Kurama said.

"What do you mean?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes, she was strange alright," Genkai added.

"Wait, I thought priestesses died out hundreds of years ago," Kuwabara said.

"They did," Genkai said.

"Apparently, she must have recieved some sort of training while she was in the past," Kurama said.

"Nothing we can do about it now. Let's get unpacked," Genkai said, going inside. They followed her in. She looked at the yard and saw it was over run with weeds. _No wonder I got this place really cheap,_ she thought.

"Dimwit! Taller dimwit! Get over here and weed the yard!" she shouted. They took one look at the yard and realized they'd be weeding for hours.

"Why don't you get Kurama to do it?" Yusuke complained.

"Because he'll enjoy it," Genkai replied and left. She closed the sliding door behind her. She took her finger and examined the amount of dust that was collected on the furniture that came with the house

"Kurama, Hiei, dust the house," she barked out. Kurama obeyed, but Hiei left as soon as Genkai was out of sight. The fox sighed.

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**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I hope you enjoyed my story. Please review and read when it's updated! Oh, yeah, no flames please!


	2. Mission Problems

**KuramasNumber1Girl: **Welcome back! I hope you all enjoy this as much I did making it. I would like to thank Shimoyuki, hieisfireyokai21, shadowyoukokitsune, and AzngrlQT for reviewing.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly, I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one.

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. No Yayoi ,however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 2: Mission Problems**

The next day: It was Monday morning and Yusuke refused to wake up.

"Open this door, dimwit, before I blast it open!" Genkai shouted, knowing very well that a blast could arrouse the neighbor's suspicions.

"Fat chance!" he shouted. Kuwabara was laughing so hard he had cramps. Kurama was finishing up the dishes. The pounding was getting louder and faster. And mixed in with the shouting and laughing, it was too much. A piece of plaster fell onto Kurama's head. "That's it," he said, putting the dish in the sink. He grabbed the plaster off his head and threw it out the window.

"Yusuke, get out here this instant!" Kurama shouted, knocking on the door.

"Make me!"

"I will!"

"He's like a mule," Genkai said, arms crossed.

Kurama took a seed from his hair and slipped it underneath the door.

**Yusuke's P.O.V.**

_I can't believe I'm going to school during a mission. I wonder why all the noise stopped. Maybe I shouldn't have made Kurama mad._ The covers were slipping off me. "What! I can't move my legs!" I shouted as I tried getting out of bed. I looked at my legs and saw vines wrapped around it. They were dragging me off the bed.

"AAAHHH!" My head hit the floor. _Damn fox._

**End P.O.V.**

The door opened revealing a very angry teen. "I hate you," Yusuke muttered.

"I'm so happy for you. Now, Hiei will be back with our school uniforms any minute now," Kurama said.

"Try right now," Hiei said, clutching their uniforms. He threw each of the boys their uniform and his on the floor.

"Aren't you coming, too, half pint?" Kuwabara asked.

"No."

"Yes, he is," Genkai said, throwing his uniform back at him.

"It won't be that bad. You and I will be in the same classes," Kurama said.

"It's not that."

"Then what?" Yusuke asked.

"The uniform is too big," Hiei mumbled. Yusuke and Kuwabara began laughing hysterically. Genkai held the uniform in front of him. The sleeves were longer by about four inches and the pants were longer by five. The two laughed harder. Hiei gave then a glare so bad, his Jagan began glowing underneath his bandana.

"All we have to do is roll it up," Kurama said, trying to supress his laughter.

"He's right. Besides I don't know how to sew," Genkai said. The others nodded meaning they don't know how to either.

"We could always ask Mrs. Higurashi to fix it, which will give us a chance to investigate," Kurama said.

"Good idea. We'll have to ask her after school," Yusuke said.

"Until then, short stack has to look like an idiot," Kuwabara chuckled.

"If I was allowed to, I would kill you," Hiei replied coldly with his hand on his sword's handle. Kuwabara laughed nervously and backed away slowly.

They quickly wore their uniforms. "We must get going," Kurama said, looking at the clock.

"You guys go ahead, I'm hungry," Yusuke said and his stomach growled like grizzly bear. They had sweat drops. Genkai hit him on the back of his head. "If you wanted food, you should have woken up when I told you to," she said. Hiei reached for his sword, which he had set down to get dressed. (Which took much persuasion.) Kurama also grabbed his sword.

"No swords in school, Hiei," Kurama said, trying to take it out of his hands.

"I don't care."

"Give it to me."

"No."

"It's not normal for you to go to school with a weapon."

"And your point is?" Yusuke and Kuwabara joined Kurama in his tug-of-war. Hiei was finally forced to use both hands to get his sword. Genkai was watching this with much interest. Kurama contacted Hiei telepathically.

/If you don't give up, I'll be forced to tell Yukina your little secret./

/You wouldn't./

/I would. And I'll make sure Kuwabara is there to see it./

Hiei let go causing Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara fall down like dominoes. Genkai chuckled and grabbed his sword. "I'll keep this for now," she said, walking away.

As they were walking to school, they saw Kagome in front of them. They decided to keep their distance. After a while, they noticed they were going to the same school.

"I can't believe how short the girls' skirts are," Yusuke drooled. Kuwabara hit him.

"What was that for?" he shouted.

"Just because Keiko isn't here, doesn't mean you can start dating other girls," Kuwabara said. At school, they received their schedules. Yusuke and Kuwabara are in the same classes and Hiei and Kurama are in the same classes.

"Hey, why aren't we together?" Kuwabara complained.

"Because you and Yusuke are a year younger then me. Hiei is in my classes because, one, we faked his files and two, someone needs to keep an eye on him," Kurama explained, making sure no one heard about Hiei's predicament.

(I do know how old Kagome is. I just made this part up, so, please, no one complain anything about school and any proper classes.)

Kurama and Hie went to their first class and sat in the back. "Hey, check out the red-head" and "He's hot" was heard as they took their seats. Kagome was whispering with her friends. Her friends kept blushing as they kept looking back at their new cute, red-headed student. Kagome finally looked back and immediately recognized them. She waved.

"They live across the street from me," Kagome explained.

"What!" they shouted. They realized everyone was staring at them and sat down quickly.

"Everyone, please take your seats for class," the teacher said, walking in. He saw the new students and said, "Please stand up and introduce yourselves."

Kurama stood up and saId, "My name is Suuichi Minamino. I recently moved here."

He sat down and it was Hiei's turn. "My name is Hiei Jaganshi." He sat down

"Okay. Kagome please show Mr. Minamino and Mr. Jaganshi around school," the teacher said.

Fast Forward to the end of school-

"Kagome do you think your mom can fix Hiei's uniform?" Yusuke asked.

"She'll be happy to and besides, he looks funny like that," Kagome chuckled. Hiei clenched his fists. Kurama put his hand on his shoulder and he backed down.

/Don't kill our only lead./

/Fine. Can I at least trip her/

/No./

Once they reached the shrine, they saw Genkai trying to escape from Kagome's grandpa. He was chasing her while holding a bouquet of roses.

"I'm allergic," she lied and began sneezing.

"Then I'll get you daffidols," he replied.

"There are my students," Genkai said happily running towards them.

"Looks like you've found yourself a boyfriend, grandma," Yusuke teasingly.

"I'll deal with you later," she whispered menacingly.

Hiei went to see Mrs. Higurashi and Genkai went with him, just in case. Mrs. Higurashi greeted them cheerfully.

"Do you guys want a tour?" Kagome asked.

"I'll give them a tour," her grandpas said enthusiastically.

"Grandpa, I hardly thing showing them around the gift shop qualifies as a tour." He sulked away.

"I think a tour is a wonderful idea," Kurama said politely.

"He is way too polite," Yusuke whispered to Kuwabara.

"I heard that," Kurama said, sneaking up on him. Yusuke jumped up and said, "Damn your thieving skills."

"You keep getting in trouble with Kurama today," Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke.

"Tell me about it," Yusuke whispered back.

"This tree is over 500 years old. Legend has it, a half demon was sealed here," Kagome said. _I hope they don't believe this._ Kurama seemed interested in the tree.

"I'm glad someone is enjoying this," Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke. They followed Kagome to what looks like a beat up old shed. She opened the door revealing a well.

"This is called the Bone Eater's well," she said.

"Why is it called a 'bone eater's' well," Kuwabara asked.

"It was believed that people threw the bones of demons in there," Kagome replied.

"That's creepy," Yusuke said.

"Are there are any bones still in there," Kuwabara asked.

"No, this may sound creepy, but we've actually gone down there. Any bones or traces of it are gone," Kagome said.

"Is the tour over?" Yusuke asked, trying not to sound hopeful.

"Yes, we should go back to the house to see if Hiei's finished," Kagome said.

They walked back to the house. Inside, Mrs. Higurashi was doing the finishing touches on Hiei's uniform. "Finished," she announced. Genkai elbowed Hiei. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"No problem."

"Well, thanks for everything, but we need to go now," Genkai said.

"Please stay," grandpa pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but I need to continue my students' lessons," Genkai said, pushing them out the door.

"I think you scared her, Grandpa," Souta said.

"Really? I thought she was just shy," he said.

"You are so dense! Besides, I don't think anyone has any real spiritual power this day and age, other than me," Kagome said.

"In other words, Genkai is a fake," Souta said. Grandpa looked like his world just came crashing down.

They Yu Yu Hakusho gang was sitting around their dinner table discussing what they investigated.

"Did you or Hiei find anything unusual in the house?" Kurama asked.

"No, everything seemed normal," Hiei replied.

"Except for that pushy, old man," Genkai said in disgust.

"That weirdo tree seemed normal except for the fact that it's over 500 years old," Yusuke said.

"Then there's the well. She said people threw demon bones in there," Kuwabara shuddered.

"Hey, grandma, is it possible for that well to have any sort of power from the bones?" Yusuke asked.

"There is a slight chance if a proper exorcism wasn't performed," Genkai replied, taking a sip from her tea.

"But I couldn't sense anything out of the ordinary," Kurama said.

"Same here," Kuwabara said.

"Let's get Hiei to read her mind tomorrow," Yusuke suggested.

"I would need the power of my Jagan, meaning, she would sense me and our cover would be blown, Detective," Hiei said. (I made this up. I have no idea if it's true or not.)

"We'll have to wait until the portal is being used and we might have a chance to see where it is," Genkai said.

"This is going to take forever!" Yusuke said, slamming his head on the table. "Ow," he said rubing his forehead.

"Is the table okay?" Genkai said. "Very funny."

"I have an idea. Why don't I just threaten their whole family?" Hiei suggested.

"No!" they shouted in unison. "Let's get some shut eye," Genkai said.

They stood up and a sudden surge of spirit power appeared and disappeared as suddenly as it began.

"Did you guys sense that?" Yusuke asked. They nodded.

"There's also a half demon nearby," Kurama added.

"Hiei, go investigate," Genkai said. He went to a nearby tree and began spying.

**Hiei's P.O.V.**

The door to the well is opening. A dog demon came out. _He's wearing red? That is no good for being discreet, especially at night. _The half demon jumped up to a window. I began unseathing my sword. Kagome opened the window and let him in. "Hm, she must know that half-demon. And by the looks of it, he's from the past."

**End P.O.V.**

Hiei quickly went back. He didn't bother going through the door. He jumped in through the open window.

"Did you find anything?" Genkai asked.

"Yes, I found the portal," he replied.

"Alright! I can get to my Yukina sooner," Kuwabara exclaimed. Hiei glared at him.

"Where is the portal?" Kurama asked.

"The well."

"We'll go after Kagome has gone back," Yusuke said, cracking his knuckles.

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**KuramasNumber1Girl: **I hope you liked it and you'll continue reading it. Please review and no flames please. Remember, it only takes a couple minutes to review!


	3. Going to the Past

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **My story's still going! I would like to thank Dream Sundancer, malfollover13 nunofyorbiz for messaging me.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly, I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one.

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yayoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 3: Going to the Past**

(If you remember in the last chapter, Hiei was spying on Kagome and Inuyasha, but he didn't know who Inuyasha was. If you don't understand why Hiei didn't attack, it was because once he saw Kagome let him in without screaming, he figured it was okay. I'm sorry if it confused anyone. I also reloaded that chapter.)

The gang went to school, but Kagome was nowhere in sight.

"Excuse me, but is Kagome here today?" Kurama asked one of Kagome's friends.

She blushed and answered, "No, she's sick with something bad. Poor Kagome." We_ would have found out earlier if Yusuke didn't get us out of the house early because of the incident last night, _Kurama thought.

**Flashback:**

Yusuke walked back from the Higurashi Shrine about 12 midnight. He was smiling devilishly. "And where were you?" Kurama asked.

"Just taking care of some business."

"What kind of business?"

"If you have to know, I was helping that old man get a date with Genkai. He told me to come over around midnight for Genkai's answer for the breakfast date tomorrow at seven. He said something about not wanting his grandkids to find out."

"She's going kill you."

"It's worth it. Besides, you're gonna help me get Kuwabara and Hiei to school early."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll tell the old hag that it was your idea."

"She'll never believe you."

"You're right, but I'll tell her that you were spying on me and didn't bother stopping me. By the way, where is Hiei? I didn't see him when I was sneaking out."

"I honestly don't know. He might be wandering around somewhere, like he used to do back home."

"He better not be visiting Yukina."

"Don't you mean spying?" They began laughing.

**End Flashback**

Kurama walked back to Hiei. He raised his brow and said, "I don't spy. I guard without being seen."

"Did you have to read my mind?"

"Yes, and if you ask me, the girl is in the past, not sick." The gang met up with each other during the morning break.

"Kagome isn't here," Kurama told Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"Let's ditch then," Yusuke said.

They reached the shrine. Hiei began walking to their temporary house.

"Where are you going?" Yusuke asked.

"I'm changing," he replied and continued walking.

"Yeah, me too," Kuwabara said.

"I also need to change," Kurama smirked. _This is bad. The old hag might find out and kill me,_ Yusuke thought.

Kurama, Kuwabara, and Hiei saw Kagome's grandfather at the front door. "Please open up! The free breakfast buffet will be over in thirty minutes!" He kept on knocking. He was on his hands and knees. "Please, you said you would go out with me!" Yusuke dragged his feet. "Uh oh."

Genkai opened the door and said, "I'm sorry, but whatever my student said was a lie. I'm too busy to be dating." She closed the door on him

"Uh, excuse, but maybe you should go home," Kurama said, helping him up.

"But..."

"No buts, you have to go home," Kurama said and took him back home and came back.

The others had already gone inside. Kurama went inside and saw Kuwabara and Hiei watching Genkai's target practice. Yusuke was hiding behind tables, sofas, chairs, and anything else he could find. Furniture was being destroyed.

"Hey, won't all this noise get the neighbors' noses in our business?" Kuwabara asked.

"I put a barrier around us after Kurama came in," Hiei explained.

"How long have they been at it?" Kurama asked.

"After you left, she started yelling and when you came back, that's when target practice started," Kuwabara said. Kurama walked past Yusuke and Genkai, avoiding her blasts, to change. When he came back, things had calmed down a bit.

"If you pull a stunt like that again, I _will_ kill you. I don't like that man," Genkai lectured Yusuke. All Yusuke could do was look at the floor and nod in silence. "Genkai really got him freaked out," Kuwabara said.

"Why aren't you all at school?" Genkai asked angrily.

"Kagome isn't there, so we came back as soon as possible to go into the past so we could find her more easily," Kurama said.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go," Genkai ordered.

"Don't you want to come?" Kuwabara asked fearfully.

"As much as I would love to leave the old man, someone with brains has to stay here to make excuses for your absents and Koenma may need an update on the mission."

Yusuke changed into his green uniform, Kuwabara in his blue uniform, Hiei in is usual black, and Kurama in his japanese clothes. They went up the steps that led to the Higurashi Shrine. Kagome's grandpa was no where to be seen. Kurama opened the door to the well slowly so there would be no noise. They walked in and he closed it. "Mew." The cat was inside. "Phew, I thought it was something else," Yusuke sighed. Kuwabara went to cat and picked it up. "What a cutie! Who's a cute kitty? Who's cute kitty?" Kuwabara kept up with this baby talk. Hiei rolled his eyes.

"We're here for a mission, not to play with cats," Hiei said.  
"Fine! Have it your way," Kuwabara complained. He went to the well and looked down. "So how's it supposed to work?"

"I guess we jump in," Yusuke said.

"I'm not jumping first," Kuwabara said.

"Yes, you are," Hiei said and pushed him in. They looked down and saw a strange light. Kuwabara's life force had disappeared. "Either he broke his neck or he went through," Hiei said. Yusuke jumped next and then Kurama and Hiei was last. After Hiei jumped out of the well, they got a good look at their surroundings.

"Look it's that huge tree," Kuwabara pointed out.

"Great, there are more trees," Yusuke complained.

"What did you think there was, buildings?" Hiei said sarcastically.

Kurama pointed out that he could sense Kagome somewhere near them. They began walking and reached a village. The villagers stared at their strange clothes. They kept whispering. "If they don't stop whispering, I'll pound someone's face in," Yusuke whispered. They saw a hut about ahead of them. "She's in there," Hiei said.

"Careful, there are others in there. A half demon, two full demons, and four humans," Kurama said.

"Inuyasha," Miroku began.

"Yeah, I know. There are people coming our way. Two powerful demons and two powerful humans," Inuyasha said the human part in confusion. The most powerful humans he has ever met are Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Kikyo, and Kaede. But these two humans were ten times more powerful.

"Is something the matter?" Shippo asked.

"There are intruders heading our way," Sango said. Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango went outside and saw the strangers. Inuyasha drew his Tetsusaiga and Hiei drew his sword. Yusuke took a fighting stance. Kuwabara summoned his Spirit Sword. Kurama took his rose out. "I didn't think we would be fighting so soon," Yusuke said, cracking his knuckles.

**KuramasNumberOneGirl:** I'm sorry for not updating sooner! My school loaded everyone with so much work! It's like they wait till we only one month left till summer vacation. Anyway, please review and no flames please. And please feel free to ask me about anything that may have confused you in my story. I want to try to make it as perfect as possible!


	4. Unusual Meetings

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Alright! I made it to chapter 4! Summer vacation is almost here! I would like to thank ficfan3484, Dreaming of Everything, Jewel of Souls, shadowyoukokitsune, and CatQueen for reviewing.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly, I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one. That's food for thought.

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yayoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided. I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure.

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 4: Unusual Meetings **

Both the Inuyasha and the Spirit Detectives were ready to fight. Kagome, Shippo, Kirara, and Kaede stayed inside the hut.

"I'm going to see what is going on," Kagome said.

"But Kagome, Inuyasha said that they're powerful. It could be dangerous," Shippo said.

"Shippo, I know, but somehow I can feel that I know them." Kagome exited and saw their facedown. They didn't begin the fight. Kagome saw the so-called 'enemies'. It was her new neighbors.

"I'm gonna take you down!" Inuyasha shouted and charged at them. "Sit!" He slammed down into the ground, eating dirt. Yusuke and Kuwabara started lauhging. "Did you see that? Dog-boy knows tricks!" Yusuke shouted.

"And I thought Kuwabara was stupid," Hiei said. Kurama chuckled. Miroku and Sango had a sweat drop.

"Kagome! What the hell was that for!" Inuyasha shouted.

"You were going to hurt my friends!"

"Friends! Why I outta..."

"SIT!" Yusuke and Kuwabara laughed even harder. In fact, they were rolling around on the floor. Inuyasha stood up again. He had revenge in his eyes. "I'm not gonna babysit more people!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Babysit?" Sango asked angrily, pointing her boomerang at Inuyasha.

"No one asked you to 'babysit' us," Miroku said, threatening him with his Wind Tunnel.

"This is getting better by the minute," Kurama said. Hiei agreed. The other two weren't paying any attention. They were waiting for the 'sit' command. Kagome, Miroku, and Sango were very mad now.

Now, imagine Inuyasha in chibi form for the following:

"WHY, I HAVE NEVER MET ANOTHER HUMAN OR DEMON AS STUBBORN OR ARROGANT AS YOU!" Sango shouted. "SIT!" Kagome shouted. "YOU HAVE NO MANNERS WHATSOEVER!" Miroku shouted. "SIT! AND YOU ARE PUSHY AND IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK TO!" Kagome shouted. Inuyasha tried to climb out of the hole, until there was another "SIT!" "But," Inuyasha tried saying. "SIT!"

Kurama was a bit frightened from the yelling. Hiei's eye was twitching and Kuwabara and Yusuke didn't know if it was okay to laugh or cower in fear. "I never thought I'd meet anyone as scary as Keiko," Yusuke said in fear. Kuwabara gulped. The villagers had gone inside their homes to try to escape the yelling. Kagome turned to them and she smiled. "Why is she smiling?" Kuwabara asked. They didn't answer.

"Why and how did you come here?" Kagome asked. Kuwabara and Yusuke pushed Kurama to the front to answer. They were still afraid.

"Well, we were sent here to help with the jewel," Kurama said, trying to sound unafraid.

"We don't need no stinkin' help!" Inuyasha shouted. "Sit."

"You know about the Shikon Jewel?" Miroku asked.

"Yes," Kurama replied.

"Come inside with us," Miroku said, motioning for them to go inside Kaede's hut. They were still a bit frightened. (Who wouldn't be after that?)

"Don't worry, we only do that to Inuyasha," Sango reassured them. They walked inside and saw a little fox demon hiding under a blanket with a demon cat and a shocked elderly woman. The yelling scared them. Kuwabara took the cat out and began his baby talk. Hiei used the hilt of his sword and hit him on his head.

"What was that for?"

"We didn't come here so you could play with a cat," Hiei said. The cat jumped out of Kuwabara's hands and jumped onto Sango's shoulder. Kuwabara rubbed the spot he was hit. They sat down.

Kagome began introducing everyone, "This is Miroku." She pointed to the monk. "This is Sango." She pointed to the demonslayer. "This is Shippo." She pointed to the little fox. "This is Kirara and Kaede." She pointed to the demon cat and the elderly woman. "And, that is Inuyasha," Kagome said angrily, pointing to the dog demon.

"The name's Yusuke and the tall, ugly one is Kuwabara. The one in black is Hiei and last, but not least, Kurama," Yusuke said.

"Kurama? But I thought your name was Suuichi?" Kagome asked Kurama.

"Well, Suuichi is my human name. My real name is Kurama." Kagome still looked a bit confused, so Kurama added, "I'm really a fox demon. I was forced to take human form."

"Wow, you're a fox demon! I never met another fox demon other than my dad," Shippo said happily. (I believe that's right, then again, I never saw the episode when they met Shippo.)

"Let's just get the jewel and get of here. I have better things to do," Hiei said.

"I knew it! You're after the jewel for your own evil purposes," Inuyasha said triumphantly. "Sit." He slammed into the ground again. "He'll never learn," Sango said.

"We are _not _going to use the jewel for evil. We were sent here to retrieve the jewel and take it back so no one else can use it," Kurama explained.

"Yeah, and we were told that some demon has most of it, so I gotta take him down, too," Yusuke said proudly.

"You? It was hard enough for you to defeat Toguro let alone, a demon that has more than half of the jewel, and each shard can multiply its power by ten folds," Hiei said which made Yusuke a bit depressed.

"You missed out one thing. The whole jewel can grant any wish you want, good or evil," Kagome said.

"That just means we gotta get the jewel back even faster," Kuwabara said.

"Do you know the demon that has most of the jewel?" Kurama asked.

"Yes, we do. His name is Naraku and he's a half demon. He enjoys playing with people's emotions," Miroku explained.

"Basically, he's a psycho," Shippo said. Kagome didn't bother scolding him because that is true.

"Aye, but his history goes even further back," Kaede said, finally speaking out for the first time since they came.

"Really?" Kurama said.

"It happened 50 years ago, when my sister Kikyo, was guarding the Shikon Jewel. A bandit named Onigumo appeared. He was burned badly. Kikyo took care of him in a cave outside of the village. Onigumo began to fall in love with Kikyo, but he realized with all his burns, no one could love him. So, one day, he summoned many demons to his side and, I believe, he absorbed them. That was when Naraku was born," Kaede said.

"Then," Kagome continued, "Naraku took the form of Inuyasha and attacked Kikyo. Kikyo thought Inuyasha betrayed her and she sealed him to the large tree you saw at the shrine. Inuyasha stayed sealed there, until a centipede demon pulled me down the well and I unsealed him. Inuyasha thought I was Kikyo because I am her reincarnation. I also had the jewel in my body and it came out. Then it was stolen and I shot an arrow to stop the demon, but I hit the jewel and it shattered. But it was by accident!"

"Psycho," was all Yusuke and Kuwabara could say.

"There's more," Sango said.

"Are you sure you want to?" Kagome asked. Sango nodded.

"Naraku tricked my village into sending the best demonslayers to defeat a demon at his castle. My father, my brother, some others, and myself, went. Naraku took control of my brother, Kohaku, and used him to kill the others. Then Naraku ordered my village to be destroyed. I was the only survivor. He tricked me into thinking that it was Inuyasha's fault and that's how we met. I found out later that Naraku used a shard to bring Kohaku back to life and he's still under his control," Sango said sadly. Yusuke and Kuwabara's mouths were wide open. Hiei seemed like he didn't care and Kurama was shocked at how evil Naraku is.

"Naraku has also put a curse on my family. Everyone in my family is born with a curse called a Wind Tunnel. It's a kind of black hole that sucks everything in its path. One day, it will swallow me up, unless Naraku is killed," Miroku said.

Kuwabara looked like he was about to cry. "Are you crying?" Yusuke asked.

"No, I just got something in my contacts," Kuwabara lied.

"You don't wear contacts, idiot," Hiei said.

"How'd you know?" Kuwabara asked.

"I read your mind."

"Who said you could read my mind?"

"Ugh, shut up both of you," Yusuke said.

"Where is Naraku?" Kurama asked.

"He disappeared awhile ago, good luck finding him. And besides, I'm the one that's gonna kill Naraku," Inuyasha said. Kagome was about to scold him, but there was a commotion outside.

They went outside and saw many villagers gathered around in a circle, trying to see something. Kagome pushed her way to the center and saw a man badly injured. "Move people, he needs air!" Kagome shouted. They back away. "Inuyasha, Miroku, bring the man inside," Kaede ordered. They grabbed him and carried him back. They laid him on a makeshift bed. Kaede wrote on a piece of paper what herbs she needed.

"Inuyasha, get me these herbs," Kaede said. Inuyasha mumbled something and Kurama heard.

"I'll get them," Kurama volunteered. He left.

"But he doesn't know what kind to get," Sango said.

"Don't worry, he knows what he's doing. He is a plant master after all," Yusuke said. After a couple minutes, Kurama came back with the herbs. He handed them to Kaede. She began grinding it for medicine. The man awoke and managed to stand up.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"You're safe now, but what happed to you?" Miroku asked.

"My village was destroyed by a wind demon. This was the nearest village I could find in one piece," he said.

"Wind demon?" Yusuke asked.

"Was its name Kagura?" Inuyasha asked.

"Its name was..." the man fainted.

"He needs to rest," Kaede said.

"Who is Kagura?" Kurama asked.

"She's Naraku's female incarnation," Sango said.

"Incarnation?" Kuwabara asked.

"He has two incarnations," Shippo said.

"This just gets worse and worse by minute," Kuwabara complained. The man awoke after an hour.

"Now, that your awake, please tell us the name of the wind demon," Miroku said.

"Its name was, it was, was... I don't remember. Wait! I don't remember," the man said. They all had an anime style fall.

"How can you forget?" Inuyasha shouted angrily.

"Sit. Inuyasha that man is badly hurt. Do you at least remember where your village is?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, it's to the west. It's called Tsuzumi Village," the man replied.

"Then let's go there. When we get there, we'll know if it's that Kagura lady," Yusuke said.

"You four will stay here," Inuyasha told the Spirit Detectives..

"I'd like to see you try," Hiei said.

"Fine, I will," Inuyasha said.

"You're just too prideful to accept help," Hiei said. An anime vein popped up on Inuyasha's head.

"Why you little pipsqueak!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Sit. Of course you all can come," Kagome said.

"Tsuzumi Village is about a four days walk from here. You'd best go know," Kaede said.

"Just stay away from the..." the man collapsed again.

"Stay away from what?" Kagome asked.

"Who knows. Besides he'll probably forget all about it when he wakes up. Let's just go," Inuysha said.

"He's right. We need to hurry. And whatever we find, I'm sure we can handle it," Miroku said.

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **I know I had Inuyasha slam into the ground a lot, but I couldn't help myself.

Review and no flames please. If I made any mistakes here, I'm sorry. I was typing it at night while watching t.v.


	5. Learning to Trust

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Hello, again. I would like to thank Time and Fate, Dreaming of Everything, shadowyoukokitsune, Kurama'sGirlRyoko, Dominika, SoraKagome, Dona, Easy-Company-506/101 for reviewing.

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly, I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one. That's food for thought.

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yayoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

(I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure. That excludes the strange relationship between Genkai and Kagome's grandpa.)

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 5: Learning to Trust**

(If anyone is wondering why Hiei didn't read the mind of the man in the last chapter, it was because he really didn't care and he has his Jagan Eye, if something does come up. Also, Kagura has done nothing, if she really does appear, that is.)

They had been walking for about two days now and nothing bad happened yet. Kuwabara was a bit jumpy after the man had tried to warn them. It was sunset and the shadows became scarier, for Kuwabara. Hiei decided to use this to his advantage. He quickly, but quietly, sneaked behind Kuwabara and scared him. He let out a huge scream and birds flew off into the sunset. Hiei, as quickly as he scared him, went back to jumping through the trees.

"Kuwabara, you are an idiot," Yusuke said after he finished screaming.

"Urameshi, I bet it was you," Kuwabara retorted back.

"How can it be me, when I'm walking right in front of you!" Yusuke said.

"I'll get back to you on that," Kuwabara said.

It was evening. The stars came out. Slowly through their walk through this forest, Inuyasha and his friends were walking in a little group in front of the Spirit Detectives. Kagome was the only one that in the middle of the two groups.

_It's like they don't trust each other. If Yusuke and the others are really supposed to help us with Naraku, then Inuyasha and has to trust them and stop telling Miroku and Sango his theories on how evil they are. Boy, he can make so mad, I just want to say 'sit' for no reason right now,_ Kagome thought.

Shippo noticed Kagome was not with them and turned around. She was walking in between the two groups. He made his way to her and jumped on her shoulder. "Hey, Kagome, is something wrong," Shippo asked her.

"No. Well, actually there is. I can't make Inuyasha trust them and he's probably annoying Miroku and Sango about how evil they are," Kagome replied.

"You're right about that. Get this, he says that Yusuke is really a spy that works for Naraku, along with his friends," Shippo said.

"How can he be a spy if he lives in the future?" Kagome asked.

"I asked him the same thing, but he threatened me," Shippo replied.

Yusuke and the others weren't trusting Inuyasha one little bit either. Hiei had heard Shippo tell Kagome one of Inuyasha's 'theories' and gave out a quiet chuckle. He joined the others. Everyone was whispering about how they couldn't trust anyone else.

"That dog dude is way too angry all the time," Yusuke said, "I don't think they trust us at all."

"If they didn't, then why did they tell us about what Naraku did to them?" Kuwabara asked.

"To make us feel sorry for them. And besides, I think Inuyasha is Naraku's spy," Yusuke said.

"How can he be Naraku's spy when he was a victim himself, Detective?" Hiei said.

"How should I know?" Yusuke said. Kurama sighed at his stupidity.

"Maybe if we tell them more about us, then they will hopefully trust enough so we can do this mission in peace," Kurama suggested. Yusuke and Hiei didn't seem to keen to his idea. Kuwabara was okay with it. Somehow, Kurama managed to convince Hiei and Yusuke to tell Inuyasha and the others more about them. They decided to wait until the perfect oppurtunity.

"Inuyasha, maybe you should stop accusing of them plotting to kill us," Sango said.

"And let them run amok! They might be out to kill us and take our shards. Then, they'll give it to Naraku and he'll only need a couple more shards. Naraku will rule everything and everything we went through will be for nothing!" Inuyasha said and he went on and on with his 'theories'.

Miroku and Sango tuned him out. They joined Kagome and Shippo. Inuyasha didn't even notice they were gone. It was getting late and Kagome suggested that they should set up camp. Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango sat down on one side of the campfire and Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama sat on the other side. Hiei sat in a tree. Kagome and Shippo sat near to Yusuke and the others to establish some sort of friendship between everyone. Kurama nudged Yusuke to signal that it was the perfect time to tell the others about themselves. Yusuke payed no attention. _This is hopeless,_ Kurama thought.

"Um, so, I was wondering, uh, who sent you here?" Kagome asked, trying to start a conversation.

"We were sent here by Koenma, he's the ruler of Spirit World," Kurama said.

"What is Spirit World?" Sango asked. "It's like they place where they decide when people are supposed to die and where they go for the afterlife," Yusuke said. He did have firsthand experience about Spirit World after all.

"That's interesting," Miroku commented, "How did the four of you begin working for Spirit World?"

"Well, for me, it all started when I died," Yusuke said the last part quietly. Yusuke was beginning to feel more comfortable with these new people. If Kurama was willing to share this type of information, then it must be okay.

"Did you say you _died_?" Kagome gasped. Yusuke nodded. "How?" she asked.

"I tried to save a boy from being hit by a car and died," Yusuke explained. Kagome quickly explained what a car was to the others.

"But how did you come back to life?" Shippo asked.

"I met the grim reaper. She took me to Spirit World and I met Koenma. He told me I could have a second chance at life. He gave me an egg to take care of. If I did enough good deeds, it would hatch and a Spirit Beast would guide me back to life. I contacted my friend, Keiko, in a dream and told her to take care of my body untill I came back. But, Keiko was caught in a burning house while trying to save my body. I used the egg to save her, so I was kinda stuck. Then Koenma came and said there's another way. Someone I knew had to kiss me to bring me back to life," Yusuke summed it up.

Kuwabara shuddered at that 'kissing' part. He remembered the one dream he supressed. It was the one where it was a message to bring Yusuke back. He shuddered again. "Are you okay?" Shippo asked Kuwabara.

"I'm fine. Just a bit chilly, that's all," Kuwabara said nervously.

"What about you, Kuwabara?" Sango asked. "It all started when I saved Yukina. I decided at that point I would protect her and others against evil demons," Kuwabara said heroically.

"Don't listen to him, he just tagged along too many times," Yusuke said.

"Hey!" Kuwabara retorted.

"Well, I for one, am very interested to find out how the two demons of the group joined them," Miroku said.

"Hiei, Gouki, and myself stole the Artifacts of Darakness. The Mirror of Forlorn Hope, the Shadow Sword, and the Orb of Baast. Gouki was defeated by Yusuke and thrown in jail. Gouki was using the power of the

Orb of Baast to steal the souls of human children to eat them," Kurama said.

"That is dispicable," Kagome explained.

"Yup, but I got them all back," Yusuke said proudly.

"I had the Mirror of Forlorn Hope. The mirror has the power to grant a person's deepest desire, but at a price. The person must give up their life to gran his or her wish. I wanted to use the power of the mirror to save my human mother's life. I couldn't bear to let her die from her sickness. I made the wish and the mirror was going to take my life until Yusuke showed up. He offered his life instead and the mirror decided not to take anyone's life," Kurama said.

"Wow, you just came back to life and he you almost died, again," Kuwabara said.

"That's because he's an idiot. His so-called unselfish act was out of stupidity," Hiei said as he walked towards them. (If anyone is wondering how Hiei knows about this incident, let's just say Kurama told him and if he really did know, then he just knows.)

"Hey!" Yusuke ahouted.

"That is true. You did say something about not wanting to see a mother mourn for her son, but that would mean your mother would mourn, again. You didn't think it through all the way," Kurama said.

"That's what Botan told me," Yusuke said.

"Who is Botan?" Miroku asked. He seemed interested. After all, it was a woman's name.

"The grim reaper," Kuwabara said.

"How can she be the grim reaper? She is so perky. The grim reaper is supposed to be dark and grim. And blue is not her natural haircolor. It's all lies," Yusuke complained.

"Well, blue can be a natural haircolor for demons, but I have no idea what Botan is exactly," Kuwabara said.

"I think she's a spirit 'cuz she told me she had to get a body from Koenma or somethin' like that," Yusuke said. (Botan actually took human form. But sometimes Yusuke doesn't pay attention very much. Botan taking human form was mentioned in one of the earlier episodes.)

"Will she be joining us?" Miroku asked. He didn't care about anything that Yusuke or Kuwabara just said. All he cared about was Botan is a woman, alive or dead while borrowing a body, or human or demon. That last part confused him. _Is the body she's borrowing a human's or a demon's body? And if she really was dead, then, was she a human or a demon before she died and what would the body be accounted for? I am so confused_, Miroku thought. (I got confused myself. Sad really.)

"How did you guys get Hiei to join?" Shippo asked with a lot of curiousty. Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara looked at Hiei. They were waiting to see if he would explain. No luck. He was as silent as always.

"I'll tell you what happened. I did beat him in the fight," Yusuke bragged. Hiei cringed at that memory. He did not like losing.

Yusuke continued, "Hiei stole the Shadow Sword. With that sword you can turn _anything_, and I mean _anything,_ you cut into a demon. Hiei wanted to raise a demon army. And he's also got that freaky looking third eye and he used that to make humans into mind slaves. Then I beat him in a fight before anything bad happened." Yusuke left out the whole Keiko incident. He didn't want Inuyasha and the others to be more trusting to them and less to Hiei.

"By luck. You assumed that your Spirit Gun was able to bounce off mirrors. And if it didn't, you would be dead and I would have my army," Hiei said.

"Yusuke broke the mirror in that fight. He should have taken into accoount that a mirror with that sort of power might not have the same reflection properties before he pulled that stunt," Kurama explained. _Yusuke has to stop winning most of his fights with luck,_ Kurama thought.

"At least I won," Yusuke said.

"Wait a sec, a demon army and human mind slaves?" Kagome asked.

"Don't worry, Hiei can't hurt humans or else he'll end up rotting in some jail cell in Spirit World," Yusuke said. Kagome was relieved.

Kurama's plan worked. Inuyasha gave up his 'theories' and they began swapping stories of past fights and missions. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **I finaly got this chapter out. I hope all of you aren't bored out of your minds. I had to have them tell these stories because, in my opinion, Inuyasha isn't the most trusting person you'll meet. There will hopefully be more action in the next one. I also tried to get the stories as exact as possible without going into too much detail. If I missed something important, feel free to tell me. Please review and no flames please.


	6. Back in the Present

**KuramasNumberOneGirl:** Hello, again! I would like to thank Time and Fate, shadowyoukokitsune, Killerangel666, and Dreaming of Everything for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yayoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

(I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure. That excludes the strange relationship between Genkai and Kagome's grandpa.)

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts and notes/letters

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 6: Back in the Present **

(I wanted to give you guys a nice little bonus chapter about what is going on back in the present time. This my attempt at humor. My friends tell me I'm very good at making funny stories. I hope all of you will think the same. And besides, I have major writer's block for the main plot.

And if no one knows, Ayame, she is a real character in yyh and I will be using her, is kinda like a secretary person.)

In Spirit World, a very impatient Koenma was drumming his fingers on his desk. He was getter more impatient and he was getting angrier by the second. "Where is that idiotic, blue ogre. I need those files now!" Koenma exclaimed angrily. He has been waiting for almost an hour now for some very important files.

Two hours later...

Koenma was banging his head on his desk out of impatientence. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. **OW!**" Koenma shouted. Koenma rubbed his forehead. "I should have sent Ayame to get the files. Where is that useless ogre?" No one knows why he didn't get the files himself after an hour. Koenma thought he could give a second chance to George to redeem himself after that little incident last week. George had brought his mother to Spirit World because she was feeling unappreciated. No one had told her that Koenma wasn't exactly a toddler. Things got a bit out of hand.

**Flashback: **

"You need to take your nappy-wappy!" George's mom said. She rocked Koenma in her arms and Koenma was screaming for help. Ogres seem to have a very good grip when it comes to children. After 'nappy-wappy' time, it was bottle time. "Drink your milky-wilky." Whatever was in that milk, made Koenma throw up. George was doing his best to stop his mother, but nothing worked. It got really ugly when he threatened in a shaky voice to not visit her on her birthday. Then, George was being chased by his mother. She was hitting him with her purse. A very big and heavy purse.

**End Flashback**

Koenma shuddered at that memory. He hit the intercom button on his desk. "Ayame, where is George? I need those files now!"

"Uh, sir, I thought I informed you that George will be out for awhile about a week ago," she replied.

"Then why didn't you? And I just told him to get me the files about three hours ago," Koenma retorted.

"He left yesterday, sir. And you weren't here so I thought I would give you note instead last week. I put it on your desk," Ayame said. Koenma looked through all the piles of paper on his desk. He found a little, yellow post-it note. It said:

_George will be on vacation for personal reasons starting next week on Friday. _

_-Ayame. _(Remember, this note is dated last week. I hope I got the dates accurate.)

"It's Saturday," Koenma said.

"That's odd. He specifically told me he would be leaving yesterday," Ayame replied.

"Ayame, come to my office now. We will begin our search for a certain blue ogre," Koenma commaned.

"Yes, sir."

Koenma paced back and forth while waiting for Ayame. She came in. Koenma was in his teenage form. "Who gave George permission to have time off?" Koenma asked sternly.

"It's in the Spirit World policies, sir. The ogres are allowed to have a month off during one decade. When the ogres need a vacation, they must contact me and I have to make sure no other ogre has time off during that time, so we can still keep to schedule here. George's request seemed to be in order so he was able to have his vacation," Ayame explained. (I made up the vacation plan. Very sad, isn't it?)

"Then why did he come back?" Koenma inquired.

"I have no idea, sir," she replied. Koenma sighed.

"If he came back here, he must be looking for something. He can't be far off, hopefully. Let's look for him," Koenma said.

000000000000

"Genkai, relax. He can't be that bad," Botan said. She was trying to calm Genkai. Kagome's grandfather was getting on her nerves, badly.

"That old man will be the death of me," Genkai said, trying to keep her cool.

"I thought that was Yusuke's job," Botan said. She quickly put her hand over her mouth. _Maybe I shouldn't have said that, _Botan thought.

"It used to be. I hope that dimwit got the jewel. I highly doubt it, though," Genkai said. She didn't get mad at the remark Botan made. Botan sighed a breath of relief. There was a knock on the door. "It's him," Genkai mumbled. Botan got up to open the door.

"If you open that door, I'll make sure you don't see the light of day," Genkai threatened. Botan sat back down. After ten minutes, he left.

Botan went to the kitchen to make some tea to calm Genkai's nerves. She also brought cookies.

"Genkai, Koenma needs an update on the mission," Botan said, setting the tea and cookies down.

"The only thing that I know of is that they went down the portal. I have no idea if they're dead or alive," Genkai replied and took a sip of her tea.

"Where is the portal?" Botan asked.

"It's at the bottom of the well on their shrine. The well is called the 'Bone Eater's Well'," Genkai explained.

"Thanks, Genkai. Bye, and good luck with your boyfriend," Botan said the last part quickly and ran outside. She made sure no one was looking and hopped on her oar. She flew off into the sky to Spirit World.

Genkai's eye twitched. _I'll get her when she comes back. And I still need to get the dimwit, too, _Genkai thought as she finished her tea and moved on to the cookies.

000000000000

Back in Spirit World, Koenma and Ayame were still looking for George.

"Sir, maybe we should stop looking. George didn't do anything wrong," Ayame said. She wanted to stop this wild goose chase.

"You are right. He did nothing wrong. Except for the fact that he didn't tell me that he's on vacation when I ordered him to get me the files!" Koenma said angrily and quickly.

"Maybe he was afraid after that incident last week," Ayame said.

"Don't remind me," Koenma replied. They, as in Koenma, decided to ask all the other ogres. They found a red ogre and asked him.

"George is on vacation," the ogre replied. And every ogre they asked said the same exact answer, "He's on vacation."

000000000000

Botan arrived at Spirit World. "Phew. I don't think I can go near Genkai for awhile after what I said." _That's odd, Ayame isn't at the front desk. She's almost always here, _Botan thought. Botan picked up a pencil and looked at it closely.

"This pencil hasn't been sharpened for about an hour and it was laid in a slanted position. Where is she?" Botan asked herself. (Let's just say Ayame is some job perfectionist.)

Botan decided to check in Koenma's office. She knocked on the door. No answer. She opened it slowly. It was dark. No one was there. She turned the lights on and closed the door behind her. She approached Koenma's desk. Suddenly, her mouth was covered by a hand. She was dragged into a closet. The closet lights were turned on, revealing...

000000000000

Koenma and Ayame had been searching high and low for George. Ayame thought it was getting ridiculous. "We need to install security cameras everywhere," Koenma said.

"Koenma, sir, please forget about this. I'll get the files for you, whatever it's about," Ayame said.

"After we find George," Koenma said.

"Um, sir, I think I'll check your office," Ayame said. She was trying to get away from Koenma.

"Good idea, Ayame, we should split up!" Koenma said and kept on looking. Ayame ran off.

000000000000

Meanwhile, Botan was dragged into a closet in Koenma's office. The lights turned on revealing George.

"George, you scared me! Why are we in a closet?" Botan practically screamed. George covered her mouth.

"Please, be quiet. I can't let Koenma see me," George said.

"Oh, you mean after your mother came here and..." Botan was cut off by the sound of a door opening.

"Someone just came into his office," George whispered. He turned the light off.

Ayame was the one that came into Koenma's office. "I might as well make it look like I came here to look for George," Ayame said to herself. She leaned on the closet door. "Nope, not here." She thought she heard voices behind the door. She put her ear to the door.

_That sounds like Botan and she's talking to someone. It sounds like George, _Ayame thought. She opened the door and saw Botan and George.

"What are you two doing in there?" Ayame asked.

"Please, I took Botan in the closet because I can't let Koenma see me after that incident and there's something else. And I need Botan's help on something. I could use your help too, Ayame. Will you two being willing to help an ogre?" George asked. Botan and Ayame felt sorry for him and decided to help.

"Thank you so much!" George exclaimed.

"What do you need help on that's so urgent?" Botan asked.

"I have a date and I need some pre-date prep and help on other things," George said. (I don't remember if George is married. If he is, then he's single in my story. If he really is single, then it's all good.)

"Okay, but you don't have to hide from Koenma," Ayame said.

"And what is the 'other things'?" Botan asked.

"I'll explain. I told my mother about my date and she got this 'great' idea that my date should come to Spirit World to see my work. She didn't listen to me when I told her I had the week off. And to make matters worse, my mother will also come here and that's why I had to come to work today. I din't get Koenma's files because I had to get ready for my date and if I told Koenma, he would be furious," George explained.

"That's bad after what happened last week," Botan said.

"Does everyone know about last week?" George asked.

"Yes, gossip travels quickly here," Ayame said.

"Meaning, she was the one that started telling the story," Botan said. Ayame laughed nervously.

000000000000

They got out of Koenma's office and headed to Botan's room. George sat in front of a vanity mirror. Ayame and Botan began their make over. They trimmed his hair and put curlers in it. Ayame tried to make George's nose look smaller with make up, but it was hard to do since George has blue skin. They found decent clothes for him. Going on a date with a loin cloth won't make a very good impression.

Ayame went outside of Botan's room and began as look out. At that moment, Koenma came down the hall.

"Ayame, what are you doing standing outside of Botan's room? You're supposed be looking for George," Koenma questioned.

"Um, I was asking Botan to help me, KOENMA, SIR, she just needs to change her clothes. Then she'll help us LOOK FOR GEORGE," Ayame said and shouted part of it to warn Botan and George.

"Ayame, I'm flattered, but you don't have to shout my name," Koenma said and walked off.

"Flattered? What goes on in his strange mind?" Ayame asked herself. She opened the door and said, "Coast is clear."

"Thanks," Botan said, "George, you can come out now." George emerged from her bathroom.

"That was close," George sighed.

"What time is your mother and date supposed to come?" Ayame asked. George looked at the clock and said, "In five minutes."

"Ayame, you distract Koenma and I'll get George out of here without being spotted," Botan said. Ayame nodded.

000000000000

Ayame found Koenma looking through the worker's lounge.

"Sir, some of the ogres spotted George at the King's Vault," Ayame lied. _The King's Vault is on the other side of Spirit World. This should keep him busy, _Ayame thought. (If no one remembers, the King's Vault is the place where the artifacts of darkness were kept until Hiei, Kurama, and Gouki robbed the place.)

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Koenma said and dragged Ayame out the door.

000000000000

Botan and George were waiting at the front door of Spirit World. George was nervously pacing back and forth. Botan was biting her nails. _If Koenma finds out I knew where George is and didn't tell him, he would have my head,_ Botan thought.

_If Lord Koenma finds out my mother is coming back, I'm dead meat, _George thought.

Suddenly, Botan spotted Koenma dragging Ayame. They were headed towards the King's Vault. Koenma didn't look their way. George was about to collapse after that encounter, until someone was speaking through the intercom to be let in.

"Hello, is this thing on? Anyway, I'm here for my son, George. I brough his date!" George's mom shouted through the intercom. Her voiced cracked and it was ear splitting. Botan and George quickly opened the door. George ran out and the huge door shut behind him.

000000000000

"Aren't we going in?" his mom asked.

"No, my shift is over," George replied, "Where's Felicia?" (I named her! It was the first name that popped in my head.)

"She called five minutes after you left and said she can't make it," his mom replied. George did an anime fall. There was a loud thud behind the door also. That 'thud' was Botan. She was listening in on their conversation.

000000000000

_I can't believe everything we went through was for nothing! I better go to Ayame and help her find a way out of this mess,_ Botan thought. She ran off to the King's Vault, hoping everything would work out.

She caught up to them and quickly lied. She said, "George was spotted leaving Spirit World. I couldn't catch up to him." Koenma was so angry that steam was practically coming out of his ears.

"Ayame, try to find some information on the Shikon Jewel," Koenma said and left.

"What happened to George?" Ayame asked after he left.

"His date canceled five minutes after he left for Spirit World," Botan explained. Ayame did an anime fall.

"All that for nothing?" Ayame shouted angrily, "When he gets back, I'm going to wring his neck!"

"You'll have to wait until I'm done with him," Botan said.

000000000000

Yusuke was lying on his back in a beautiful meadow. The wind was blowing. Everything was peaceful. Inuyasha and the others were doing other stuff. Only Kuwabara was with him. He was sitting under the shade of a tree.

"I wonder what the others are up to?" Kuwabara wondered out loud.

"They're probably more bored than we are," Yusuke answered.

000000000000

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Well, how'd you like it? If nothing made sense to you in this chapter, then good. Some of the stuff was meant to not make sense, like Koenma hitting his head on his desk.

I would like to thank my friend, **Shimoyuki**, for giving me the idea of George going on a date. She also forced me to write which helped with my writer's block. (Darn her evil methods!) Check out her stories. (That's her fanfiction pen name in bold.) She's writing a Full Metal Alchemist story. I'm in it. I'm the thief. You better read it cuz I'm in it! (lol)

Now to advertise her upcoming story:

Also, if you like Kuwabara-bashing, check out her stories. I feel like an advertiser. (lol)

Please review and no flames please!


	7. The Next Target

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **I would like to thank Hirina, Kemiko3955, Shessha's Crazy, SoraKagome, DevilDucky1304, Fireflymaiden, and shadowyoukokitsune for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yayoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

(I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure. That excludes the strange relationship between Genkai and Kagome's grandpa.)

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 7: The Next Target**

It was the fourth day of their travels and so far nothing bad had happened. It was a clear, sunny morning. It was just one of those days where nothing could go wrong.

"Today is the last stupid day in a lousy forest to get to that stinkin' village!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"My, what a large vocabulary," Miroku said sarcastically. Yusuke ignored him.

Shippo was riding on Kilala. They were going ahead to see if they could find Tsuzumi village soon to escape Yusuke's insistent complaining about trees and dirt and bugs and everything else about nature.

"What's that?" Shippo wondered out loud. Kilala also spotted it. It looked like a village that was destroyed a couple days ago. "Maybe we should go tell the others," Shippo said. Kilala turned around and flew back down to the others.

Kilala and Shippo landed in front of them. Shippo got off and said, "Guys! There's a destroyed village in front of us!"

"Do you think it could be Tsuzumi Village?" Sango asked.

"One way to find out," Inuyasha said and raced off toward it. Sango, Miroku, Kagome, and Shippo sat on Kilala and went after Inuyasha. The others ran. Hiei passed Inuyasha and reached the village first. The others caught up soon.

The village's destruction looked like it was caused by a tornado. The huts had the roofs torn off and others had only a piece of a wall standing.

"Do you think anyone was killed?" Kuwabara asked.

"I don't smell blood," Inuyasha replied.

"There is nothing here. The humans probably escaped," Hiei said. While Hiei was saying this, Kagome was looking through a pile of wood. She picked up a sign and quickly read it.

"Guys, I think this was Tsuzumi Village," Kagome said.

"What? That means we're too late!" Inuyasha exclaimed.

"We were already too late when the injured man came," Hiei said rudely.

"There's nothing else here that could lead us to Naraku. We should just move on to the next village," Miroku said. The others agreed.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

It was just before lunch and there was still no sign of a village.

"Hey, guys, do you know what I just realized?" Kuwabara said.

"Let me guess, you finally realized you're stupid," Hiei said.

"No, short-stack! I realized that the warning that guy gave us in Kaede's village didn't come true," Kuwabara said.

"Oh, yeah, I remember that," Kagome said.

"It didn't happen yet," Kurama said.

"What do you mean by that?" Inuyasha asked.

"He couldn't remember. He was probably suffering from a slight memory loss. It is kind of hard to forget the name of the demon that attacked yourself and your village without a little help to forget about it," Miroku answered.

"If the demon told him their name, that is," Sango said.

"If it is Naraku, I'm sure there will be some sort of clue that will lead us to him," Kagome said.

"He'll probably just leave clues that will lead us into a trap," Hiei said.

"A trap?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes, from what we've heard, he is smart and pshycotic. That's a very dangerous combination," Hiei answered.

"If it is Naraku, he has laid a trap already, but he doesn't know there will be more than he bargained for," Kurama said.

After Kurama finished speaking, a rustle was heard in the bushes. Hiei drew his sword, slowly. He quickly ran to the source and slashed whatever it was in half. It was an overgrown bug. He picked it up and brought it back.

"That's a Saimyosho. It's one of Naraku's poisonous insects," Sango said.

"Yeah, they do his spying," Shippo said.

"That's just great! He probably knows we're here now," Kuwabara exclaimed. (I think Kanna's mirror is better, but I don't think they know about that little bonus. All they know is the soul-sucking and reflecting attacks.)

"He may know we're here, but he doesn't know how strong we are," Kurama said.

"Or stupid in some cases," Hiei added.

"Hey!" Yusuke and Kuwabara shouted in unison.

"Oh, so you know you're stupid then," Hiei said. Yusuke and Kuwabara were really angry now. Kurama grabbed them by the backs of their collars to stop them from doing something foolish. The rest had sweat drops.

"You two walked right into that one," Kurama commented.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Nightfall was drawing near. Shippo was riding on Kilala once again for a better view of their surroundings.

"Kilala, I think I see another destroyed village," Shippo said. Kilala went back to the others.

"Is it another destroyed village?" Kagome asked. Shippo nodded yes.

"Ugh, that's the third one!" Yusuke complained. Inuyasha sniffed the air.

"There's smoke. Something's burning," Inuyasha said. He pointed towards the mountains, which is away from the destroyed village Shippo saw.

The origin of the smoke was at the base of a mountain. A demon had appeared and had already burned a hut down at the outskirts of a village. The people that lived there were cowering in fear. They were the next target until Yusuke came. Yusuke cracked his knuckles and said, "I'll take him down."

"Yusuke, be careful. There could be other Saimyosho near here," Kurama warned him.

"Don't worry, this demon is too weak to use my Spirit Gun on anyway," Yusuke said.

The demon was a reddish color. He had long, sharp claws. His long, black hair had some blood encrusted in it. He had the eyes of a killer and his next target was Yusuke.

"Foolish, human, do you have a death wish for challenging me?" the demon asked.

"Me? You're the dead one," Yusuke replied.

Yusuke charged at him and sent a devastating blow to the demon's stomach. The demon was blown away into a tree. Miroku ran to the spot where the demon landed.

"Amazing. The demon died with one punch," Miroku exclaimed.

"Lucky hit," Inuyasha scoffed.

"You're just jealous," Shippo said.

"Why you pipsqueak!" Inuyasha shouted and hit Shippo on the head. A huge bump emerged from Shippo's head.

"Ow! Kagome, Inuyasha hit me!" Shippo tattled.

"Sit, boy," Kagome said. Inuyasha was surrounded by a glow and involuntary slammed into the ground and ate dirt

The villagers that saw the battle, ran away. "What cowards," Hiei muttered.

"Let's go, the village is up ahead," Sango said.

As soon as they stepped foot in the village, the villagers ran off into their huts. They carried children, animals, food, and whatever else they could carry. The villagers screamed something about a wind demon.

"I guess they think we're the wind demon," Kuwabara said.

"Let's just go to the village headman and see what we find out," Miroku suggested. (If no one knows, the headman is like a mayor.)

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The found the headman's house and called for someone to let them in.

"Maybe no one's home," Shippo said.

"They're home, but they're just afraid to let us in," Hiei said. He walked in and the rest followed. There were guards inside and they tried to seem brave.

"Please, we mean no harm. We just heard of a wind demon terrozing villages in the region and we wanted to help," Mirkou said. Someone came out of hiding. By his clothing, he seemed to be the headman and Miroku realized that before the others. Miroku introduced the others.

"Where is the demon, if you know?" Miroku asked.

"The last siting was at the top of our sacred mountain. The person that spotted the demon came back half dead, but was able to warn the others that our village was the next target," the headman replied, "It's awful, ever since Tsuzumi Village was destroyed first. They had the best defenses against demons. Now that it's gone, other villages have lost hope for survival."

"Why doesn't everyone leave?" Yusuke asked.

"It's almost impossible. There are demons waiting to kill us all if we left. And once a target has been decided, demons stay away from the village," the headman said.

"But we stopped a demon attacking the village a little while ago," Kagome said.

"It must have been a warning from the wind demon. The demons that dare come near the next target work for the wind demon," the headman replied.

"And you know all this, how?"Hiei asked suspiciously.

"Well, there are rumours about things like that happening. Since you all want to help us, why don't you stay here as long as you like," the headman said. He was a bit eager to change the subject. He clapped his hands and a servant came. "Show them to their rooms."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Alright, I finally finished this chapter. I know, it's kinda boring, but blame writer's block. I promised myself to finish this chapter before the end of June, but I kinda spaced out and hit major writer's block. Just so you know, there might be less updates. Please review and suggestions are welcome, but flames aren't.

Oh, yeah, last chapter when I advertised my friend's new story, it's not only Kuwabara-bashing, it bashes random anime characters from different anime. It's called **Anime Torture**.


	8. The Barrier

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Hello, my loyal readers. I would like to thank Kemiko3955, ficfan3484, emma (), JoannaKuwabara, Easy-Company-506101 for reviewing

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yaoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

(I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure. That excludes the strange relationship between Genkai and Kagome's grandpa.)

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 8: The Barrier**

The next morning, Yusuke managed to get Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama out of their room. They were standing near the court yard, waiting for Yusuke. (They had somehow managed to get Hiei to sleep inside so they wouldn't seem rude.)

"Yusuke, you better be getting ready," Kurama said behind the door.

"Don't worry, I am," Yusuke grinned devilishly. After fifteen more minutes, everyone else had come out, except Yusuke.

"Where's Yusuke?" Shippo asked while rubbing his eyes.

"The idiot is refusing to come out," Hiei said.

"Yusuke, don't make me wake you up again," Kurama warned while knocking on the door. There was no answer. Kuwabara put his ear to the door and heard snoring.

"He's asleep," Kuwabara said, "Urameshi, open up!" He began pounding on the door. There was still no answer.

"He sure is a deep sleeper," Kagome said.

"Deep? He once slept through a crowd of screaming, blood thirsty demons," Kuwabara said.

"I can smoke him out," Hiei suggested.

"Then everything will burn," Kurama said.

"And your point is?"

"No!" Kurama and Kuwabara shouted.

"Hn."

"I'll just wake him up then," Kurama sighed.

"How? You can't even get in without destroying the door," Inuyasha said.

"You'll see," Kurama said and took a seed from his hair. He put it on the floor and the vines began growing, but the vines couldn't go underneath the door or the sides. The vines climbed to the top of the door and entered.

**Yusuke's P.O.V.**

I had woken up from all the noise. _Huh? The noise stopped. Wait that means... No! I blocked the door. Kurama's plants can't get in this time._ I fell back on the makeshift bed and my eyes widened. "AHHHHH!" The vines grabbed me and pulled me up to the ceiling. They carried me away from the bed and dropped me on the hard floor.

**End P.O.V.**

A loud thump was heard. "What happened to him?" Sango asked.

"Simple, he's awake," Hiei said. The door slid open. The vines crawled back inside the seed. Yusuke was standing in the doorway. His hair needed combing and he looked like he was out for revenge.

"Kurama, that's twice now. It's time for some payback," Yusuke said and cracked his knuckles.

"You should save your energy," Kurama said.

"Not gonna happen," Yusuke said. He tried to hit Kurama, but he moved to the side and Hiei put his foot out. Yusuke fell flat on his face.

"I hate you," Yusuke said, but he was muffled by the floor.

"Yes, I know that already," Kurama replied. The girls had sweat drops and the guys were laughing. Yusuke got up. Kurama was about to say something when Yusuke interrupted.

"Yeah, I know, get ready. Geez, you're like my mom," he said. Yusuke went back into the room.

"Well, that was interesting," Miroku commented.

"I'm suprised Genkai hasn't killed him," Kuwabara said.

"Who's Genkai?" Shippo said.

"Yusuke's teacher, well, sort of," Kurama said.  
"Do you mean the same Genkai that you guys live with?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah," Kuwabara replied.

Genkai. She sounds like an old woman with a nasty attitude," Miroku saod.

"That's her. That old hag doesn't give me any peace," Yusuke said as he got out of the room.

"How did you know? We never told you about Genkai," Kuwabara said.  
"And I didn't say anything about Genkai either," Kagome said.

"When it comes to women, I know everything," Miroku bragged. His hand trailed down to where it always goes, Sango's behind.

"Not everything," Sango said while slapping him.

"I thought monks avoided stuff like that," Kuwabara whispered to Yusuke.

"That's what I thought, too," Yusuke whispered back.

"You are such a lecher," Inuyasha said.  
"I couldn't help myself," Miroku said.

After Yusuke and Kuwabara had eaten everything offered at breakfast, they began their journey towards the sacred mountain.

"Hey, did the headman tell any of you where the sacred mountain is?" Yusuke asked.

"No," they said in unison, except Kurama and Hiei.

"Should we ask?" Kuwabara asked.

"That's the mountain over there," Hiei said and pointed to the largest mountain visible past the fields.

"How do you know?" Inuyasha asked.

"There's an odd wind coming from the mountain every so often. It goes in the opposite direction of the regular wind," Hiei explained.

"Right, the last time it happened was during the commotion of waking Yusuke up," Kurama said. Suddenly, a strange wind blew in the direction away from the mountain and another towards the mountain.

"If it is Kagura, she would never slip up like that," Miroku said after the wind died down.

"Unless it's a trap," Kagome said.

"So what? We're ready for anything! I say we go and finish this mission so I can see my precious Yukina," Kuwabara announced. He began walking in the direction Hiei pointed out.

"Kuwabara," Kurama said.

"What?" He shouted back while still walking.

"There's a..." Kurama started, but Yusuke stopped him. Yusuke pushed Kuwabara on the sloping ground into a a huge puddle of mud. He got up slowly and walked back to the rest. He spit out the mud like a fountain and wiped part of the mud from his face. "I'm gonna get cleaned up and I'm gonna get you, Urameshi when I come back!" Kuwabara said and began walking back to the headman's place, "And thanks for not laughing." Everyone immediately broke out into a roar of laughter. And Hiei, he laughed too, but not as loud.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

And so began their wait for Kuwabara, except Miroku. His excuse was he wanted to listen to the village gossip about the demon. Miroku walked to the village square. The strange wind blew again. Suddenly, a group of women emerged from the shadows and walked up to him.The group consisted of four young women. Miroku noticed them coming from the corner of his eye.

"To what do I owe this great honor, ladies?" Miroku asked as he turned towards them.

"We heard you are going to defeat the wind demon," one of them replied.

"That's true, I will be going shortly, but first, who wants their plams read?' Miroku asked happily

"We do!"

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kuwabara walked back to the group. He borrowed clothes from the headman. On the way back, he kept telling himself that he should have brought spare clothes, but no, he thought it would be one of those missions where it wouldn't take very long.

"You look so stupid!" Yusuke exclaimed, breaking into fits of laughter. That was enough to get Kuwabara out of his train of thought. "Ha, ha, ha!" It was Yusuke laughing once again.

"Shut up!" Kuwabara shouted. He was wearing a pair of blue, old-fashioned pants and a white shirt with overgrown sleeves. On top of that was a a dark blue vest with golden swirls. He had also tied a white bandana around his head, like the one he wore when was saving Yukina.

"Why are you wearing that on your head?" Shippo asked.

"Because it reminds me of the time I saved Yukina," Kuwabara answered.

"Yukina? Who is that?" Sango asked.

"My girlfriend," Kuwabara replied.

"Hmph, a girl likes you?" Inuyasha questioned.

"I ask that same question to myself everyday," Yusuke said.

"You guys are just jealous," Kuwabara said.

Yusuke rolled his eyes and said, "You wish." Miroku came back at that second.

"Well, shall we go now?" Miroku asked.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

As they began their journey to the sacred mountain, the people in the fields and village cheered and applaused for them. People stopped what they were doing to just see them.

"News travels quickly here," Sango said.  
"Yeah, but they sure are happy," Shippo said.

They walked through a small forest, but Yusuke complained that it was murder on his feet. At the end of the forest, there was a barrier.

"Great a barrier," Inuyasha complained.

"This barrier is made of a dark force. If any humans even think of entering it, they will be killed instantly, and some demons may suffer the same fate as well if they're not careful," Kurama said.

"How do you know?" Inuyasha asked.

"You learn a thing or two as a thief," Kurama said, "Well, whoever made this barrier might have the power over darkness and it takes a very complicated spell to do this correctly."

"I'll just break it down then," Inuyasha said as he began to unseathe his Tetsuiga.

"Don't even think about, if you try to destroy the barrier with your sword, it could cause a chain reaction that will destroy everything within a hundred miles," Hiei said.

"You're kidding, right?" Kagome asked.

"If you don't believe me, then why don't we try it and find out," Hiei said.

"No, that's okay," Kagome said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

In the darkness, mysterious figures were discussing something, something bad.

"Why didn't you get rid of him?" a female voice asked.

"Because he was useless. He wasn't even fit to eat," a male voice replied.

"You never know, he could have been hiding his true power. We can't afford mistakes," another female voice said.

"He had a very disturbing face. He would probably taste awful anyway," said another female voice.

"There will be no mistakes. They are heading towards the mountain as we speak. Nothing will stop us," another woman said.

"Let's hope that our trap works," the male voiced replied.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Yusuke tried to go near the barrier, but the dark force of the barrier pushed him away. He was thrown onto the ground.

"Ha, I'm not dead," Yusuke said as he pointed to the sky. He was still on the ground. Everyone had a sweat drop. Kurama examined the spot of the barrier where Yusuke was.

"I think Yusuke may have found a weak point of the barrier," Kurama said.

"Weak point?" Miroku asked.

"Yes, even at Yusuke's strength, he would most likely be dead or unconscious due to the power of this barrier, but he was just forced away because he accidently stumbled upon a weak point," Kurama explained.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Kuwabara asked.

"I say we fight darkness with darkness," Hiei said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**KuramasNumberOneGirl: **Wow, I got this chapter out sooner than expected. I still have writer's block, but I found this notebook where I had written this chapter in when I had computer problems. So, I just typed what I wrote with some adjustments. I can't believe I forgot all about it! Boy, am I absentminded. I also have the next chapter in the notebook, too, so that will also be coming soon if I feel like typing. .

I wonder if anyone can figure out who the voices were and who had the disturbing face? Even, if you can't, they will be revealed soon. Please review and suggestions are welcome, but flames aren't. And, I might change my pen name in the near future. (Just a little heads up.)


	9. The Headman

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hey, people! I would like to thank Kemiko3955, Dreaming of Everything, JoannaKuwabara, ficfan3484, emma (), wingweaver (), Hirina, animemoontiger for reviewing. I finally got **50** reviews!

And I told you all I would change my pen name soon!

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament and before the whole Sensui thing. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin. NO Yaoi , however you spell it, and pairings are undecided.

(I am thinking of having no crossover pairings because I want to keep the couples exactly how they are in the anime, but I'm still not sure. That excludes the strange relationship between Genkai and Kagome's grandpa.)

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 9: The Headman**

"Hiei, what do you mean by that?" Sango asked.

"You'll see," he replied. Kurama realized what he was thinking.

"Don't you even dare thinking about using the dragon," Kurama warned.

"Don't worry, fox, that's Plan B," Hiei replied, "This barrier is made from a darkness spell. I'll try to destroy it with the power from my Jagan. If that doesn't work, then it's dragon time."

Hiei took off his bandana, It was the first time he had done so since coming to the Feudal era. Hie third eye opened slowly. It was glowing. Inuyasha and the others never knew Hiei concealed an eye behind his bandana. They, as in Inuyasha, thought it was to make look tough. Never would they have guessed an eye of all things! Now they know, but have no idea what it's capable of.

"Kurama, is there something special about that eye?" Miroku asked. He had sensed a dark energy coming from it. He was very curious about it since the energy didn't seem natural.

"Actually, yes. That third eye Hiei has is called a 'Jagan'. It gives whoever has it extraordinary minpower and also gives him the ability to control the most devastating attacks," Kurama explained.

"That's amazing! Was he born with it?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha thougt it was a stupid question to ask. He naturally thought he was born with it.

"Not exactly," Kurama replied.

Not being born with an eye, or an extra eye in this case, seemed to confuse Kagome and the others a bit, but they kept their mouths shut. If Hiei wanted to, he would tell them about it, but, sadly, due to his antisocial behavior, that would take awhile. But how on earth can you receive an eye implant? That question was on their minds.

Hiei was doing his best to destroy the barrier at its weak point, but whoever made it, really did their homework. Even at its weakpoint, it's seems almost impossible to destroy it. _The amount of power used to make it must have been great, _Hiei thought.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Darkness was everywhere. By the likes of it, four women and one man were sitting in a room. It was dark and cloudy, which was strange considering they were inside.

"Those pests are doing their hardest to break the barrier," a man said. Inuyasha and the others had met this man before. He was not exactly human.

"The barrier is made of a special spell, a spell of darkness. If it is performed correctly, it will be impossible to break," a female voice said. All the women in the room were also familiar, but familiar to one person only: Miroku.

"I agree with you, but even if they are able to destroy it, their energy will be depleted. Then they might even climb the mountain and lose more energy. Then, we'll kill them," one of the women said, "But maybe we shouldn't be here all together. We are all demons and they could sense us at one point."

"She's right and anyway, I am beginning to wonder if we can succeed. We were told by you, Naraku, that there would only be four fighters, one of which is a half demon, and two useless pure blooded demons. When they came, there were four more fighters," another women said.

"I could barely sense a thing. And one of them was a demon also. The short one I believe, but there was another with smell of a human and a demon merged together and he wasn't a half demon, either," Naraku said. This was the same man talking earlier. Naraku had finally come, but he wasn't exactly there. He was controlling the headman.

"They could be masking their real power. We should be careful," a woman said.

"Maybe, one of us should have killed the tall one with the orange hair when he had come back here," another woman said, "But it was amusing how he was covered in mud."

"Oh, well, at least we'll still be able to succeed at the village," one of the women added.

"Yes, your dear old brother will take of that decrepit priestess," Naraku added, "They'll never suspect a thing."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Koenma hit the intercom button on his desk and said, "Ayame, get me Botan. I need a word with her." _I can't wait till George comes back. I have a bone to pick with him, _Koenma thought. He was impatiently drumming his fingers on his desk.

Botan entered his office. She looked very tired. Ferrying souls and spirits is harder than it looks. For one thing, there's hardly a time for a break, unless of course Koenma assigns her another job or is given time off.

"Botan, I've found some information about the Shikon Jewel and something about a half demon named Naraku that Yusuke and others need to know about," Koenma said.

"What is it, sir?" she asked as she took a seat. Normally, Koenma would say that she couldn't because she would need to leave in a hurry, but seeing her work double shifts as the pilot of the River Styx, he let her sit, and he might have a lot of explaining to say to Botan.

"Well, the jewel and this Naraku are very closely related to each other. For one thing," Koenma said as he put a bulky file on his desk, "Naraku has more than half the jewel. In his file here, his strength level is that of a higher B-class. If he obtains about five more shards, he would become an A-class apparition. If he has the whole thing, he would be as strong as an S-class. But, I'm afraid this information isn't very reliable."

"And why is that, sir?" Botan asked.

"Because earlier today, his strength was about an A-class. The information in his file is constantly changing from what is happening in the past. The only reason he's weaker now is because he probably gave away some shards. Maybe because he's having others do his dirty work," Koenma said.

"That's bad," Botan said, "I should get going then."

"Sit," Koemna said, "There's more. The other thing is, as a half demon, he has a moment of weakness once a month, but he can control when that period is. That might also help them," Koenma said.

"Okay, if that's all, I'll be leaving," Botan said.

"Oh, and more thing, get Genkai to go with you. You never know what lurks in the Feudal era," Koenma said. He took out something from his drawer. "Botan, take this." Botan took it. It looked like her communicator.

"Why do I need it? I already have," Botan asked.

"This one allows you to communicate through time. If something comes up while you're away, I can contact you or you can contact me."

Botan rushed out. She hopped on her oar and began flying towards Genkai. She still had a long way to go, and to make matters worse, she had to travel through storm clouds. _Why do clouds have to be so cold and why storm clouds of all things? _she thought. As she neared Genkai's house, the skies had cleared. She landed on her doorstep and began knocking quickly. No answer. "She better not think I'm that pushy, old man," Botan thought out loud.

At that moment, Genkai peered through the blinds. She had heard Botan's voice. "What is it?" Genkai asked asked after opening the door.

"Koenma wants us to go to the Feudal era to offer the others some, what's the word, um guidance," Botan said.

"In other words, they'll need help help defeating a very powerful demon," Genkai said, "Am I right?" Botan nodded.

"Will you also be coming?"

"Yes, I can help them somehow. I've been practicing my healing powers," Botan replied.

Genkai walked past her, motioning her to follow. Genkai didn't bother using the stairs to the Higurashi Shrine. She walked cautiously through all the tress and foliage surrounding the shrine. Botan was the one that walked up the stairs. Their plan was: if someone was outside, tending the shrine, she would distract them while Genkai mader her way to the well. Once there, Botan had to find a way to the well with out being caught if she was distracting someone.

_Ugh, the only reason Genkai's in the trees is because of that old man. She must really hate him, but I think they would be cute together, _Botan thought. She had made it up the stairs. Lucky, there was no one in sight. Genkai saw Botan's signal, meaning it was clear to get the well. The well was almost in the middle of the shrine and it was broad daylight, which made it quite dangerous. Botan was almost to the well, but then she looked at the house. She saw a woman at the window, washing dishes. _If she looks up, we're deadmeat, _Botan thought. She quickly ran inside the well house and shut the door quickly, but quietly.

Botan, along with Genkai, peered down the well. Botan was nervous. "I guess we just jump in," Genkai said.

"I'm not jumping first," Botan said. Genkai pushed her in. "Think of it as revenge for the last visit you payed me. I despise that man."

Botan had landed hard on her bottom. "Ow." Then, she was enveloped with a mysterious blue light. She had a very eerie feeling. The ground had disappeared and she was falling slowly. The light stopped. Botan made her way out of the well. She looked at her surroundings and saw that she was surrounded by trees. She was definitely not at the shrine anymore. After a minute or two, Genkai emerged. "Let's get going," the old woman said. Botan followed.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Yusuke and Kuwabara had almost fallen asleep waiting for Hiei to destroy the barrier. It had almost been an hous and still no luck. Inuyasha was very impatient. He was pacing back and forth, mumbling something about trusting someone that implanted an eye. Shippo was playing with his tops. And the rest were talking amongst themselves. Kurama glanced at Hiei. He had stopped trying to destroy the barrier with his Jagan. Hiei was beginning to take his bandages off his arm. The same arm with the dragon tattoo. Kurama stopped him.

"Don't use the dragon," Kurama warned him, "You said yourself that brute force will destroy everything with in a hundred miles."

"Well, brute force involved using that overgrown sword of that half breed's," Hiei replied in a matter-of-fact way.

"We have no idea could happen if you use the dragon. No one has every tried to destroy this kind of barrier before. We're lucky we haven't been blown up yet. It's best you stop now before your impatientence kills us all. I'm sure we'll find another way to-" the fox demon was cut off. He sensed demons. They were at the village. Hiei also sensed it and so did Inuyasha. The rest were oblivious to it because it was so faint.  
"Let's go. There are demons at the village," Inuyasha said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

They arrived at the village square. The source of the demonic aura was close. "Guys, I sense about five jewel shards over there," Kagome said, pointing to a large building. It was the headman's house. "The shards are all tainted with evil," she added.

Everyone cautioulsy approached the place. They wanted the element of suprise on their side. The aura was powerful, but not powerful enough for the villagers to see something was amiss. But, the animals in the villager were acting strangely, which was enough to convince the people that something was wrong. Animals were always considered more intune with anything out of the ordinary. (It's true, my bird sensed an earthquake coming before it hit.)

There was a feeling of dread and evil surrounding the headman's house. As they neared the front door, Kilala's hair stood on end and she hissed quietly. Kurama slightly slid the door open. They walked in quietly. Kagome pointed to a door which led to the courtyard. The shards were there. As they entered the courtyard, the not only saw the headman, but he was with four other women.

"Those women have jewels shards and so those the headman," Kagime exclaimed.  
"I know those lovely ladies from somewhere," Miroku said.

"You know them?" Sango asked.

"Yes, I read their palms earlier today," Miroku replied.

"Kagome, you said the headman has a jewel shard, right?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Well, why didn't you sense it earlier?" Inuyasha shouted.

"Because he didn't have it earlier!" And so began Kagome's and Inuyasha's constant argueing.

"If I may interrupt," Kurama interjected, "maybe he received the shards after we left.

"Exactly, and Kagome can't sense shards after a certain distance or else we could have found Naraku by now," Miroku said. He was trying to change the subject between him and Sango. _Since when does she get mad when I read palms? _Miroku thought.

Everyone was a bit preoccupied with Kagome's and Inuyasha's bickering to notice there was something wrong with the headman. His eyes were blank and dull. It had no life. It was as if someone was controlling him. Kurama was first to notice. Then, the headman drew a sword. Kuwabara had also noticed and was about to summon his Spirit Sword, but was stopped.

"Why'd you stop me?" Kuwabara asked.

"Because the headman is being controlled by someone else. He's still a human and we might end up hurting him badly," Kurama explained.

The headman charged at them. They parted to dodge the attack. He attacked again. Kurama went behind him and gave him a weak karate chop on the neck. It was weak enough to not hurt him badly, but strong enough to knock him out. Kagome crouched down to pick up the jewel shard, but he got up again.

"Fools," he said and he laughed the same laugh Naraku has.

"It's Naraku!" Inuyasha shouted.

"That's Naraku?" Kuwabara questioned.

"No! Naraku is controlling the headman. Kurama said that five minutes ago," Yusuke said.

"He's as stupid as he looks," Naraku mumbled.

Inuyasha grabbed the headman/Naraku and shook him. "Where are you, coward?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," he replied. Inuyasha set him down.

"Where's the jewel shard that Naraku has located?" Kurama asked Kagome.

"On his neck." That was all Kurama needed to hear. He had a plan to take the jewel shard. He had figured out that Naraku is controlling the headman through the shard.

/Hiei, keep him busy./

/Why? What are you up to/

/You'll find out soon./

"So, Naraku, it must be true, what the half demon said. You are a coward," Hiei said.

"I'm far from it."

"Then why do you have to control a human to face your enemies? Is it because you're afraid you'll die?" Hiei was getting under his skin.

"Why should I be afraid? As you said yourself, he is just a half demon."

"But I think you're even more afraid because we came. You have no idea what we can really do." Before Naraku could reply, something green wrapped around his arm. Since he was controlling a human, there was nothing he could do to escape. Hiei had taken the sword from his hand.

It was Kurama. He had used a thornless rosewhip to subdue him. And the women, who serve Naraku, didn't even see the whip until after it made contact.

"Get the shard from his neck. That's the way he's controlling the headman," Kurama said. Kagome ran up and quickly grabbed the shard. It was dark and evil, but as soon as she touched it, it was purified.

"Why'd you do that? We could have found out where he was hiding?" Inuyasha asked.

"Because the shard was tainted. If it stayed with the headman any longer, he would have died," Kurama said. The headman was unconscious Naraku had lost his control over the headman, but he still had back up.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Damn, I lost my control and a jewel shard," Naraku said.

"I'm sure you'll get it back," a little girl said in the same, creepy tone. She had white hair and a pale face. It was Kanna. She was holding a mirror. It was showing the courtyard with Inuyasha and the others. They were getting readyto fight.

"At least I'll see what the newcomers are capable of, if they fight at all, that is," he said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **I can't belive this took so long! I know I told you guys I had written it down, but I changed more than half the chapter and I've been so busy. I was trying to type this chapter while reading the 6th Harry Potter book, which didn't go so well. At one point, I was typing a paragraph from Harry Potter. Well, I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, hopefully soon, but I kinda doubt it. Please review and no flames please!

I'll be nice to you all this time and give you a preview of the next chapter:

Genkai and Botan haven't even been in the Feudal era for an hour and they're facing some danger. They have to save Kaede from some demon that Naraku sent to kill her!

Yusuke and the others have to defeat the four mysterious women and get their jewel shards, but Kuwabara keeps telling them it's wrong to fight a girl. And Miroku agrees with him wholeheartedly! But, they don't know that Naraku is using Kanna's mirror to spy on them. Will Naraku get the shards back or will he fail?


	10. Demons in Disguise

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hi! I would like to thank ficfan3484, Kemiko3955, Hirina, JoannaKuwabara, ladykurama1, Violent Tomboy, shadowyoukokitsune, and Soul's Eclipse for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **Hey, guess what? I finally decided the pairings! -silence- Fine be like that. -applause- That's better. (**No yaoi couples**) The pairings are: (I might add more, but it depends on what happens later on.)

Kagome/Inuyasha/ Kikyo (Ah, yes, the strange love triangle thing. The reincarnation and the clay thingamajing fighting for the half demon's love.)

Sango/Miroku (No comment there.)

Keiko/Yusuke (hehehe, yes, Keiko will be coming soon.)

Yukina/Kuwabara (maybe...)

Kagome's Grandpa/Genkai (It's more of a onesided thing; he loves her, but she doesn't.)

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 10: Demons in Disguise**

Genkai and Botan found a nearby village near the well. As soon as they entered the village, they received strange stares along with whispering. Most people were staring at Botan and her strange features; her blue hair and pink eyes. Genkai was also receiving stares. She did have a rusty pink hair color.

"I think they think we're demons," Genkai said.

"But we're not demons," Botan said.

"We'll they've never seen a human with hair color like ours."

"You have a point, but I'm not exactly human, either," Botan said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ms. Grim Reaper, you don't want them to know about that."

Genkai and Botan found a hut. Genkai sensed a higher spirit energy coming from it, but not much. It belonged to a human. There was also another energy coming from it. A strange type of energy. It had human and demonic energy mixed. Botan was about to enter, but she was stopped. Botan turned to Genkai and was about to ask why she did that until Genkai answered her unasked question.

"There's something weird in there. I think we should wait a minute until we take action."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Meanwhile, Miroku and Kuwabara had carried the unconscious headman inside. Being controlled by Naraku can really drain someone, especially if that person is a regular human. The headman looked peaceful sleeping, as if he was never being controlled.

Miroku and Kuwabara went outside again to see if the fighting had started. It looked like Inuyasha wanted to fight first. He had drawn his Tetsusaiga. It was an overgrown sword made from one of his father's fangs. One of the women had stepped forward. Kuwabara had joined the others.

"You can't fight a girl! It's wrong!" It was Kuwabara with another one of his honor code 'speeches.'

"SHUT UP!" Inuyasha and Yusuke shouted in unison.

"Well, at least Kuwabara has better manners than his friend, Yusuke," Sango whispered to Kagome. She nodded.

"Kuwabara, that demon might not even be a woman," Kurama said.

"Great, it's a repeat of that Miyuki dude," Yusuke shuddered. (Miyuki, the demon cross dresser. Remember her, I mean him. It's a guy.)

"Those four over there are a type of shapeshifting demons that can take the form of anything they've, well, eaten. They can also take on their powers and if they've eaten a human, they can take on a similar energy signal. That way, it's almost impossible to tell them apart from humans or anything else," Kurama explained.

"Right, they usually take on a form that could make their opponent go easier on them," Hiei said.

"But, what if they are women?" Miroku asked, "I do agree with Kuwabara, it's wrong to hit women."  
"Won't they just transform back if they're killed?" Kagome asked.

"But that would be too late to know their gender," Miroku said.

"Well, if their transforming abilities are great, then they might not even transform back if killed," Kurama said.

"So, we're back to square one," Kuwabara said.

"Well, they do seem like real women," Miroku said.

"Yeah, just like how Miyuki did," Yusuke mumbled.

All this talking was getting on Inuyasha's nerves. He wanted to fight and they were talking so much, it was distracting him. The other women were also getting irritated.

"For your information, we are women!" all the women shouted.

"See, I knew it! They are women!" Miroku explained.

"Then, you shouldn't fight them, Inuyasha!" Kuwabara shouted.

"Kuwabara, damn you and your stupid honor code! I'm gonna fight them whether you like it or not!" Inuyasha shouted back, "Same goes for you, Mirkou!" He started mumbling curse words under his breath.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Genkai and Botan were spying through a window, well, it was more like an opening. There was an elderly woman and an injured man. The man was asleep.

"So, where is the weird energy coming from?" Botan whispered.  
"The man."

Nothing happened yet. No one in the hut noticed Genkai and Botan spying on them. Genkai motioned Botan to follow her. They went near the forest, but they still kept the hut in sight. Genkai had figured out that the injured man was really a demon in disguise and it wouldn't do anything if they stayed near the hut. They would wait until something happened.

"Um, Genkai, what if that man isn't a demon?" Botan asked.

"Don't even think of something like that. I'm always right," Genkai replied. Botan sweat dropped.

They waited for only five minutes, until a surge of demonic energy came from the hut. Genkai ran toward it and Botan was about to ride her oar, until she remembered they were in the Feudal era. She ran also.

Genkai burst in the hut and saw the elderly woman was ready to defend herself with her bow and arrows. The injured man was a demon. A rare shapeshifting kind. It was the same kind that Kurama had explained.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"It won't be of very much importance to you once you're dead," Genkai replied.

"You'll have to wait your turn. I need to kill this priestess first. I have orders to do so."

"Who ordered you?"

"Some demon named Naraku."

"That's the same demon that Yusuke and others might need to defeat," Botan gasped.

"Really?" Genkai asked and raised a brow.

With her speed, she appeared behind him and grabbed his arm. She bent his arm behind his back and Genkai wasn't showing any mercy. The man had signs of pain on his face. The man escaped her clutches and tried to punch her. Genkai blocked it and twisted his wrist.

"Human, why are you so strong?" the demon asked.

"Because I actually train."

Genkai kicked him in the stomach. The man was taken back. "You aren't very strong are you?" she asked.

"I'm just not prepared. I wasn't told a super old lady, thing, would also be here," he replied. He was worried.

Botan went to the elderly woman. "You aren't hurt, are you?" Botan asked. The woman shook her head.

"Just who are you two?" she asked.

"Well, my name is Botan and the one beating the demon is Genkai."

"My name is Kaede."

Genkai had punched the demon out the hut through the door. She went out after him. The villagers had gone inside once they heard the commotion. Genkai lured the demon into the forest to continuue their fight.

Botan and Kaede saw the demon go after Genkai into the forest. After a couple minutes, they saw a bright blue orb of energy soar into the sky. It was Genkai's Spirit Gun. It wasn't as big as it was at the Dark Tournament, but it got the job done. Genkai had come back to the village. She was unharmed, except for the rips in her clothes. Kaede invited Genkai and Botan inside her hut.

"I thank ye for saving me," Kaede said.

"It was no problem," Botan said.

"We're looking for some teenage boys. One with red hair, one that wears only black, another that's tall and ugly, and the last one looks like a dimwit," Genkai said.

"Aye, Kurama, Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara. They went with Inuyasha and the others to Tsuzumi Village days ago," Kaede replied.

"How far is it?" Botan asked.

"It's a four days walk from here." Genkai stood up to leave.

"Genkai, will we be following them?" Botan asked.

"Of course not. I'll be going home where there's electricity and indoor plumbing. Come and get me when they come back here," Genkai said, "Thank you for your hospitality, Kaede." She left to go home.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Damn," one of the woman said.

"What?" another asked.

"Our brother is dead. He could have failed the mission." (They have a very strong family bond, kind of.)

Inuyasha heard. "Your brother failed what?"

"He failed to kill that Kaede woman."

Kagome and the others heard this. Naraku was planning to kill Kaede somehow, but how? She may be old, but she's very capable to protect herself. Then again, there's no telling with Naraku. He could have sent Kagura to help. If that happened, Kaede would be doomed.

"I hope Lady Kaede is alright," Sango said worriedly.

"Me too," Kagome said.

"Don't worry, ladies. I'm sure she's fine," Miroku said. Sango cringed. Miroku was rubbing her ass again.

"Lecher!" A red handprint appeared on Miroku's face. Yusuke and Kuwabara were cracking up.

One of the women had stepped forward. She had a sword.

"I would like to introduce ourselves before we kill you," she said, "We are the Flower Maidens. I am Sakura." She transformed into her true form as a demon. She had long pink hair with blue eyes. She was wearing a kimono with cherry blossoms.

"I am Hana." She also transformed into her demon form. She had white hair up to her shoulders. He eyes were gold. They were blank and cold. There was a daisy in her hair. She was also wearing a kimono. Hers was black with daisies embroidered on it.

The next one introduced herself as 'Yuri.' Her hair was black. It was in a ponytail. Her eyes were green and lifeless. She was wearing pants with lilies and a white sleeveless shirt.

The next was 'Bara.' Bara had maroon colored hair. Her eyes were a deep purple, much like wine. She was wearing a bright blue kimono with small rose buds embroidered on it.

"And now we fight," Bara said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Did you guys like it? Tell me if I did a good job with the fight scene between Genkai and the demon. (I'm not good with fight scenes.)

Hey, do you wanna know something cool? Those Flower Maidens are like flower maidens. Their names mean the name of a flower in Japanese. Like Sakura means 'cherry blossoms', Hana means 'flower', Yuri means 'lily', and Bara means 'rose.' And I got Tsuzumi Village from an Inuyasha game on PS2.

Anyway, please review and no flames please!


	11. The Fight

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hey! I want to thank Time and Fate, Soul's Eclipse, Easy-Company-506/101, ficfan3484, JoannaKuwabara, Kemiko3955 for reviewing. Look at the bottom for replies to your reviews!

I'm going to try to update as soon as possible. I've also started working on the stories I put in my **Upcoming Stories** section in my profile. I just work out the bugs with those stories.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament and before the whole Sensui thing. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin.

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudale Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 11: The Fight**

Naraku had been watching over everyone using Kanna's mirror. He was getting impatient, especially since they spent a good time trying to figure out what gender the demons were. He kept muttering to himself how he will kill Kuwabara first because he stopped the fighting. He wanted one of his enemies to die already, a bloodier death, the better. He also wanted to see what the newcomers were capable of. He hoped that they aren't very powerful.

"Kanna, check on Kaede. I want to know if she was killed yet," Naraku commanded. Kanna's mirror had a reflection of Kaede's hut. Then, there was a closer look revealing Kaede was alive and with a strange girl with blue hair. "Damn! How could that old, useless priestess survive! What happened to the demon I sent to kill her?" The mirror reflected a destroyed battlefield. A closer look revealed the demon's limbs. There was blood everywhere. "Who killed him? Maybe it was that girl that was with Kaede. Kanna, I wat to see what happened to Inuyasha. He better be dead."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Inuyasha had already started fighting with Sakura. (Kuwabara kept shouting in the background.) Sakura was using her sword to block the Tetsusaiga, which was taking a lot out of her considering Inuyasha's sword was made from his father's fang. There were sparks coming from the swords.

They jumped back. Sakura seathed her sword. She twirled her hands in the air. The attack she was planning seemed bad, really bad. Her eyes glowed red. Her demonic aura was being gathered in the air. It was forming a huge attack. An attack that could destroy half the village.

_Damn, _Inuyasha thought. He held his sword steady. He would have to block that attack or who knows what could happen. The energy was still being gathered.

"Maybe he should attack right now while she's vulnerable," Yusuke said.

"But that's dishonorable and it's wrong to hit a girl," Kuwabara retorted.

"It is dishonorable, but that attack could level half the village," Kurama stated.

"It can what?" they shouted in unison, well, everyone except Hiei and Inuyasha.

"So, we gotta help," Yusuke said.

"In a nonviolent way," Kuwabara quickly added.

"We should wait. We've never seen Inuyasha battle before. He might be able to handle it," Kurama said.

"We're doomed," Shippo sighed.

The attack was ready. It was glowing a sinister green. She hurtled it toward Inuyasha. The attack collided with his sword. He was being pushed back from the force of the attack. Sakura was laughing evilly. "I call that little attack Lightening Clash. It workes wonders for those stubborn enemies."

_I have to do something, but what? I got it, I'll use the Backlash Wave,_ Inuyasha thought.

He jumped back and quickly sent a Wind Scar toward the attack. It mixed in with the demonic energy and sent it right back toward Sakura in a mass of demonic tornadoes. "Backlash Wave!" (I hope that's the right description for the Backlash Wave)

"What the hell?" she said in shock. Her own attack was being sent back at her with double the strength. Naraku conviently forgot to mention that. She was engulfed in the attack.

Once it cleared, all that was left was a pile of ashes and three angry Flower Maidens.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Damn, that Inuyasha," Naraku said and began using more offensive curse words.

"Naraku, Kouga is traveling toward the village," Kanna stated in her emotionless tone. "Really, thatmight makethings more interesting," Naraku smirked.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Yusuke was staring at Inuyasha's Backlash Wave in awe. The half demon had some cool moves after all. Hiei scoffed. "It doesn't even compare to my dragon."

"He did it!" Kagome and Shippo exclaimed.

"He sure did. He killed a girl," Kuwabara said. Yusuke groaned. He wouldn't shut up unless he gets knocked out. That gave Yusuke a great idea.

"Hiei, could you-" Yusuke started, but Hiei already knew what he was asking.

"I'd be happy to," he said. Hiei took the hilt of his sword and hit Kuwabara at the back his head. He hit him harder than neccessary, but it wouldn't cause any real damage. He toppled over.

"Um, did you just knock out your own friend?" Miroku asked. He was suprised.

"He was annoying. Now we can fight in peace without having him constantly talk," Hiei replied, "Besides, it was Yusuke's idea."

"Since when do you listen to him?" Kurama asked.

"Since he said I could hit the fool."

The Flower Maidens were angry. Hana, the leader, stepped forward. She clenched her fist. "Die, half breed!" She charged at Inuyasha. It caught him by suprise. He skidded a couple feet. He wiped the blood from his mouth as he stood up. "You're stronger than the last one. Let me guess, you're the leader?" Inuyasha said.

"Yes, and your executioner," Hana replied.

"Inuyasha should really rest. He looks tired," Kagome said worriedly.

Hana sent a blast of energy toward Inuyasha. He didn't have time to dodge; she was too close. Inuyasha was blasted toward the house. A wall crumpled. He was having trouble standing up. Kagome ran to his side. "Inuyasha, stop fighting. One of us will take over from here," she pleaded. Tears were forming at her eyes.

"I'm fine. I don't need help," he insisted. Kagome was angry. She wanted to be nice to him since he's hurt, but he wasn't making that easy. "Sit."

"What was that for?" Inuyasha shouted.

"For not listening to me! Now you _are _going to rest or I'll say that word for an hour straight." He gulped and nodded his head. The rest nervously laughed. Kagome can really strike fear into people's hearts, especially Inuyasha's.

"I guess that means it's my turn," Yusuke said, cracking his knuckles.

"No, it's mine," Hiei said. He disappeared for a second and reappeared at the makeshift battlefield. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to pay for the damages.

Hiei unseathed his sword. Hana was ready. He spotted a Saimyosho. It was flying toward the ashes. The shard was still there. With his lightening fast speed, he attacked the overgrown bug before it could reach the shard. He picked up the shard and threw toward the others. Yusuke caught it, but it was so tainted he dropped it immediately. Kagome purified it.

"That's two shards in about an hour. It must be our lucky day," Shippo said.

Hna charged at Hiei. He dodged. They did this for a couple minutes. Everyone was getting a bit bored watching this. "Oh, finish her off already!" Yusuke shouted.

"Of course, I wouldn't want to keep the great detective waiting," Hiei said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes. _There are still some Saimyosho here. I think I should let Naraku see a real attack, _Hiei thought. He smirked.

Hana slipped something into her hand from her sleeve. She tossed it. Hiei caught between his two fingers. "A daggar, my, my, demons in the Feudal era are so predictable," he said. He burned the daggar. "I'm tired of this. I'll finish every single one of you flower people with one attack." Hiei's bandana burned off his face. His fist was surrounded with fire. He charged at her. He went too fast for her to dodge.

"Fist of the Mortal Flame!" She screamed loudly. She too was turned into ashes.

"Geez, these demons are weak," Yusuke said, "All Hiei had to do was use one attack."

"They aren't neccessarily weak. I have strong feeling that they are sisters and the death of Sakura clouded her judgement with anger and revenge so she couldn't focus on the fight," Kurama explained.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Naraku saw the attack Hiei pulled off. He was amazed. He had never seen a demon pull off an attack like that with fire that strong. "Maybe I should absorb him instead of Sesshomaru," he said.

"Hana was the leader, the strongest, what will happen to the rest?" Kana asked.

"Simple, they'll die. Most likely by the hands of that Hiei," he said. He was almost happy.

"What about the shards?"

"They can have them, besides Hiei is faster than my Saimyosho. There is no point. From now on, I'll send demons to attack them without shards."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei walked toward the remainig maidens. He stretched out his hand and said, "Hand over the shards and I'll consider sparing your pathetic lives."

Bara had a determined look. She put up a barrier, separating herself and her sister from the fire demon. "You'll never get the shards!" she shouted. Hiei was getting mad and impatient. He was getting the Fist of the Mortal Flame ready once again.

"How about we tell you were Naraku is hiding?" Yuri blurted out.

"Yuri," Bara scolded. She hit her on the head. Hiei calmed down.

"Speak," he said.

"Well-" she started, but something happened. The tainted shards glowed darker. Both Yuri and Bara couldn't breath. The shard was killing them off. Naraku planned this from the start. Once he found out they were willing to spill his secret hiding spot, he would kill them off using the tainted shards.

Hiei would have read their minds, but the barrier surrounding themselves and an extra set of barriers was surrounding their minds stopped him. They were so close, but Naraku was prepared for this.

The barrier faded. Kagome ran to dead maidens and picked up the shards. "It's so sad. They were being used by Naraku and they didn't even know," Kagome said.

"Hn." Hiei walked away. Kuwabara woke up, just in time to see all the maidens dead.

"Hey, Urameshi, what happened?" Kuwabara asked.

"They're all dead."  
"Dead! But-" Yusuke covered his mouth before he could begin his rant.

"Hey, what about that barrier surrounding the sacred mountain?" Yusuke asked.

"It was just a trap set by the maidens. Bara was the one that made it," Hiei said.

"And you can tell, how?" Inuyasha asked.

"When she put up that barrier a couple minutes ago, I could sense a simliar energy coming from it. It matched the one that surrounded the moutain. Now that she's dead, it's gone," Hiei replied.

"It's gone, huh? Well, I don't smell Naraku, so he's not up there," Inuyasha said.

"So, what do we do now?" Yusuke asked.

"Something is coming," Kurama said.

They saw a tornado coming rapidly toward them. "Great, it's Kouga," Inuyasha groaned.

"Kouga?" Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama asked.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **My fingers are so tired form typing this. I hope you liked the fighting scenes. As I said before, I'm not very good at those. Ooh, they get to meet Kouga now. I want to thank **The Violent Tomboy** for reminding me about Kouga. I forgot about that guy. --;

If anyone is wondering why Hiei could touch the tainted shard and Yusuke barely could, it's because I've kinda noticed from the episodes, only really evil humans and usually demons are more able to touch it, along with Kagome and Kikyo of course. And remember, my story is set right after the Dark Tournament so Yusuke doesn't discover his demon heritage yet.

I think it's possible for someone in the show to die from tainted shards. If you remember the episodes about Tsubaki, the evil priestess, she tried to kill Kagome with tainted shards with a curse on it. Naraku did something similar to that.

I hope that answers any questions you might have. And hopefully my info is right.

I've also decided to reply to people reviews down here:

**Time and Fate: **hm... back at you. (lol)

**Soul's Eclipse: **I'll try to update soon. My writer's block is slowly going away! Yay!

**Easy-Company-506/101: **Youko will come soon... Just need to figure out how.

**ficfan3484: **Yeah, the Flower Maidens are cool, too bad I had them all killed off.

**JoannaKuwabara: **Aw, you're so nice!

**Kemiko3955: **look at the reply for Soul's Eclipse.

Please review and no flames please!


	12. Kouga

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **I want to thank JoannaKuwabara, ficfan3484, shadowyoukokitsune, Hirina, animefanatic-9877, Time and Fate, Soul's Eclipse for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **For the yyh gang, this takes place after the Dark Tournament and before the whole Sensui thing. In the anime, Kuwabara lost his spirit powers at this point, but in my story he still has it. For the Inuyasha gang, this takes place after Naraku disappeared without a trace after his failure attempt of kidnapping Rin.

/thinking/- telepathy

_italics_- thoughts

Spacing may be a little off

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 12: Kouga**

The tornado was coming faster and faster toward them. Kagome and her friends didn't seem to care, except for Inuyasha getting madder. The tornado stopped next to Kagome. Once the wind subsided, a wolf demon was standing there, holding Kagome's hands. He had black hair in a ponytail and he was wearing a brown skirt.

"Dude, is that a skirt?" Yusuke asked.

"You wear a skirt? It's Miyuki all over again!" Kuwabara shouted.

"Who the hell are you and who is Miyuki?" the wolf demon asked.

"Answer my question first!" Yusuke shouted.

"Tell me who you are first!" the wolf retorted. Kuwabara laughed out loud at the skirt. Kurama tried stiffling a laugh and Inuyasha was ready to kill Kouga, as usual.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inuyasha started.

"There's nothing wrong with visiting my woman," the wolf replied.

Kagome had her hand clenched into a fist. _His woman? He just doesn't get it, _Kagome thought.

"Kagome, who are the other men?" he asked.

"Oh, um, this is Yusuke." She pointed to one that asked him about the skirt. "This is Kuwabara." She pointed to someone, that Kouga thought, was plain ugly "This is Hiei." She pointed to a short demon in black. "And this is Kurama." She pointed to someone with long red hair and green eyes. "Guys, this is Kouga." _Hm, that Kurama better not go after my Kagome. He looks like such a pretty boy,_ Kouga thought.

Hiei chuckled. "What?" Kurama asked.

"Nothing," Hiei smirked. He had entered Kouga's mind easily, found out what he thought of Kurama and had also found out about his jewel shards.

Miroku approached Kouga and asked, "So what brings you here, Kouga?"

"I heard about a wind demon terrozing the people here and I thought it was Kagura."

"Too late, we already took care of it," Inuyasha butted in.  
"Really, all I see is a destroyed courtyard with a ton of villagers staring," Kouga replied.

"Really? I want to see you do better. All you can do is punch and kick, nothing else."

"Oh, yeah, well, you can't defeat Naraku with that pathetic sword of yours!"

"My sword's not pathetic and I'll prove it too, right here, right now!"

Inuyasha took out his Tetsusaiga. Kouga went into a fighting stance. They both growled. "Sit." Inuyasha was slammed into the ground. "You didn't have to do that, Kagome. I can take care of that mutt," Kouga said, "But I'm glad to know you care about me." He took her hands into his. Yusuke was making gagging noises behind Kouga's back. Everyone was stiffling their laughter.

"Um, Kouga, everything is under control here. You can go," Kagome said.

"Alright, if you say so," he replied.

"Not so fast, I want the shards," Hiei said.

"Shards?" Kuwabara and Yusuke asked in unison.

"You're not getting my shards."

"Fine, I'll just have to cut your legs off then," Hiei threatened.

"Hey, I've always wanted to do that," Inuyasha pouted.

"Great, now Kouga won't leave," Miroku mumbled.

"I wonder what happened to his wolf friends?" Shippo whispered.

"There were too slow to keep up, again," Sango replied. As much as they loved seeing Inuyasha make a fool of himself in front of Kagome, this was getting annoying. Kouga comes, they fight, then Kagome says the magic word, and Kouga leaves. They can predict what happens next when Kouga is around, but Hiei threatening to cut his legs off is a new one. This will be interesting.

Kouga laughed. "You cut my legs off? I'd like to see you try." Hiei disappeared and appeared behind him. He kicked him in the back of his knees. Kouga fell forward.

"If that was my sword, you wouldn't have any legs right now," Hiei replied.

"I'll kill you!" Kouga said. He was still on the floor. He got up and lunged forward. He wanted to punch Hiei right in the face, but Inuyasha grabbed Kouga's hair.

"I think it _is_ time to take your jewel shards," Inuyasha said.

"Why you mutt!" Kouga shouted back. He got out of Inuyasha's hold on his hair and focused his attention on Inuyasha, forgetting all about Hiei. Now it's back to normal routine.

"Sit. Kouga, you really should go," Kagome said.

"Alright, my dear Kagome, but if those new 'friends' of yours give you any trouble, all you have to do is call my name and I'll be right there to protect you," Kouga said.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind," Kagome said. She sweat dropped. Kouga disappeared in his tornado and he went off.

After a minute, Kouga's wolf friends showed up. "Which way did-" They all pointed to the same direction. "Thanks."

"We should leave before the headman wakes up and sees the damage," Miroku suggested. They all agreed with that idea and began their journey back to Kaede's hut.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **I wasn't feeling very creative for this chapter.I hope you liked it. Here are the replies:

**JoannaKuwabara: **Don't worry, I won't tell Kuwabara. Kuwabara: Tell me what? me: Nothing, nothing at all. -nervous laugh-

**ficfan3484: **I hope you liked what I did to Kouga.

**shadowyoukokitsune: **Yeah, Hiei is strong. But Kurama's stronger. Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

**Hirina: **It's okay. I'll add more romance and humor.

**animefanatic-9877: **I'll try to update soon!

**Time and Fate: **Yes, Hiei killed people! Muhahahaha!

**Soul's Eclipse: **My writer's block may be almost gone, but it'll probably come back in about a month and school's starting really soon, too.


	13. School

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hi, guess what? I'm running out of ideas for these author notes. Anyway, thank you JoannaKuwabara, Time and Fate, Hirina, East-Company-506101, shadowyoukokitsune, Rei Minamino, sleep all day rock all night for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I owned Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha, but sadly I don't. I wonder how much I have to pay to own at least one?

**Note: **I'm getting rid of the note because I'm sure you all have memorized it by now. I know I have.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street **

**Chapter 13: School**

Their four day travel was drawing to a close. They were almost to the village now. But they couldn't help but wonder if Kaede is alive. Those Flower Maidens did tell them that they were planning on killing her. If anything happened to her, they could never forgive themselves.

Only minutes away from the village now. Suddenly, they saw blue hair through the trees. It was jooming toward them. No rustle of leaves or anything, it was like it was flying.

"Don't worry, it's just Botan," Kuwabara told them.

"Oh, you mean the strange girl that's supposed to be the grim reaper but wears pink?" Shippo asked.

"Yup, that's the one," Yusuke said.

A young lady with blue hair and pink eyes landed in front of them. She was wearing a pink kimono and she was flying on an oar.

"Hello, boys. Long time no see," she said. Miroku automatically went up to her and held her hand.

"Hello, my fair maiden of death. Would you do the honor of baring my child?"

Sango was ready to do a Hiroktsu, but Botan beat her to it with her oar. She hit Miroku so hard, he was on the floor, dazed and confused. He was twitching. Yusuke bent down next to him and said, "Don't worry, I know what that feels like." Yusuke rubbed his head.

"This is Botan," Kurame said. They said their introductions and they heard all about how Genkai saved Kaede.

"So Genkai really isn't a fake. I better apologize to Grandpa," Kagome muttered.

They reached Kaede's hut soon, considering they had to keep shutting Yusuke up because of his constant complaints about nature. 'Bugs this, rocks this...' He was a never ending fountain of complaints. And they couldn't forget about 'I hope we all cut down these useless trees in the future.' That earned him a glare from Kurama.

"So what did the toddler want to you tell us," Yusuke asked. The hut had patched up walls. They concluded it was from the demon attack. Luckliy, Kaede was unharmed.

"Well, it's about Naraku and his power level," Botan started.

"Naraku's power level? So, you know exactly how strong he is?" Sango questioned.

"Koenma told me his strength is that of a B-class. A B-class is the third strongest type of demon. That information came to us in a bit of shock considering Naraku _is_ a half demon," Botan explained.

"Hmph, what's wrong with being a half demon?" Inuyasha asked irritably.

"Nothing, except most half demons are weak because of their human blood. They can't reach their full potential," Hiei said rudely, "The only reason Naraku is strong is from the jewel."

Inuyasha was about to rebute, but Botan interrupted, "Hiei is right. Naraku is strong because of the jewel. His power solely relies on the shards."

"It's true, the more shards he got, the more abilities he was able to do," Kagome said.

"Like the incarnations, reshaping his body, a stronger barrier, and who knows what else," Shippo said.

_He can do that? Koenma never mentioned anything about that. I should tell him, _Botan thought.

"Who cares if Naraku is a B-class. I took down Toguro, and he was supposed to be the strongest," Yusuke announced.

"Correction, he was the strongest that was in human world. He was also a B-class, the same as Naraku. But unlike Naraku, he couldn't get any stronger. Naraku _can_," Botan read from her little book.

"Great," Kuwabara complained.

"If we take back the jewel from him, he'll be too weak to fight even one of us," Kurama said.

"Easier said then done," Inuyasha said.

"It's easy for a thief," Kurama replied.

"What are you planning, fox-boy," Yusuke said.

"I can't plan anything without actually seeing him fight. Besides, it would be best to strike at his hideout."

"The only way that would happen if the barrier was weakened," Miroku said.

"Koenma did say that Naraku has a moment of weakness each month, but sadly, he can control when that day is," Botan sulked.

"Well, binky breath rules the afterlife, so can't he just dig up some file that can track the days Naraku picks for this weakness thing. It is in the past, I mean present for us and past for him," Yusuke said.

"It's not that simple. If it was, we wouldn't need you to-" Botan was cut off from her communicator ringing.

"Hello, Koenma."

"No time for hello's, Botan. I found out that Naraku has incarnations," Koenma said.

"You're five minutes too late or more like a couple hundred years, give or take," Botan said.

"Oh, well, carry on." He hung up.

"What an idiot," Yusuke said.

Kagome stood up. It was afternoon and she wanted to go back to school the next day in her time.

"Where are you going?" Inuyasha asked.

"Home."

"Home? No way, we're getting close. I can sense it."

"I need to go back to school. I've already missed a ton of days!"

"School can wait, Naraku can't!"

"Tough luck! Sit!" Kagome stormed out.

"We should go to school as well. Staying home from school for too long will seem suspicious," Kurama said. Grudingly, the rest of the Spirit Detectives agreed. Besides, it will give them a chance to relax in the luxuries of the 21st century, like television!

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The next day, Genkai had to force everyone to wake up. They had missed sleeping on a mattress. Half awake and half asleep, they walked to school. Once they reached school, they saw Kagome running behind them.

"I'm not late am I?" Kagome asked. They shook their heads.

"Good," Kagome sighed, "Well, I'll see you guys later." Kagome ran off to her homeroom.

"She sure likes school," Yusuke muttered.

"See ya later," Kuwabara said to Kurama and Hiei as he and Yusuke went to their first class.

Kurama and Hiei entered their homeroom which is the same as Kagome's. They took their usual seat in the back. All the girls, except Kagome, crowded around them asking how they were feeling. Apparantly Genkai had told them they got in a freak accident involving a clown, a unicycle, and a trapeze artist. Basically, it was a circus act gone wrong. Genkai can really get creative with made up accidents.

"I can't believe they thought that was true," Kurama whispered to Hiei.

"Hn, you know these humans will believe anything," Hiei replied.

Kagome's friends went back to her after hearing about Kurama's and Hiei's amazing recovering that they fought against all odds to stay alive.

_How can they believe this trash?_ Kagome thought. "Yeah, their recovery sure was something," Kagome said.

"How do you know? You were sick with pneumonia and bronchitis," one of her friends said. _At least Grandpa is moving onto more realistic sicknesses, _Kagome thought bitterly.

"Stupid, she was in the hospital too. Maybe they were next door or something," another of her friends said.

"Yeah, that, and besides, I already told this, but they live across the street from me," she said.

"Oh, yeah."

During lunch, Kagome, Hiei, and Kurama had to take a couple missed tests. In the same room, Kuwabara and Yusuke were at the other side for the same reason.

_I don't know any of this! _Kagome thought as she chewed the tip of her pencil.

Kurama was breezing through the tests. He had already learned all of the material at his high school.

/What are the answers/ Hiei contacted Kurama telepathically.

/I told you to study the quadratic equations last night./

/I had better things to do./

/Like polishing your sword/

/Fine, be like that, fox, I'll just read the teacher's mind./

Kurama had finished all the tests he missed and glanced at Hiei before he left. He had a defeated look on his face. Kurama convenietly forgot to mention that the person that was supervising them was not a teacher at all. It was the janitor. Too bad Hiei didn't know about that before they began the tests.

_I could read the girl's mind, but it looks like she's having more trouble than me, _Hiei thought, _Good thing it's multiple choice._ Hiei began guessing randomly. Now, Hiei could read the mind of the janitor to see if he saw Kurama's answers, but Kurama made sure the janitor didn't see. And the janitor wasn't even looking at the tests.

By the end of the day, they received their results. Kagome barely passed. Same with Kuwabara and Yusuke. Hiei managed to pull off a B, thanks to demon intution and random guesses. And finally, Kurama received a perfect score.

It was after school, and Kagome was with her usual friends. They decided to go to their usual place to eat, until Hojo showed before they even left school grounds.

"Hello, Kagome, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"I have some home made herbal cough drops for you," Hojo said and handed her a bag. Kagome peered inside and thought, _Geez, these cough drops look like the size of melons._

"Thanks, Hojo, but you didn't have to."

"Well, I know, but-" Hojo was cut off by Kuwabara shouting, "We'll see ya later, Kagome!"

"Yeah, we'll do homework or something!" Yusuke shouted.

"Homework?" Kuwabara asked Yusuke.

"No, you idiot, we're gonna go over the mission," Yusuke said angrily.

"Actually _yes_, we are going to do homework, Yusuke," Kurama said. Yusuke groaned.

Well, Hojo looked a bit jealous. There were rumours of a red headed boy that had his own fanclub full of girls even though that red head was barely at school. He was worried if Kagome liked him.

"Oh, I see you have plans, well, maybe next time," Hojo said sadly.

"Hojo, don't worry, none of them are my boyfriends. They're all just friends," Kagome said. She sensed that there was something wrong with Hojo, and the only reason she said that was because of her friends would call her a, let's see, Kouga, Inuyasha, Hojo, and now the four new travelers, a seven-timer, oh, she also told them about Miroku, so an eight-timer. She didn't want that happening. (It's true, there was an episode that Kagome told them about Inuyasha, Kouga, and Miroku, but not their names or that they're in the Feudal era.)

And with that, it ended a dreadful day at school. Now, they had to catch up on missing work and study for tests the next day. Sometimes school is the hardest mission of all.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **I hope you liked their day at school. (I couldn't resist putting the janitor to supervise them during testing.) Here are the replies:

**JoannaKuwabara: **I have no idea when updates will come because school is starting in a couple days! Run for your lives! Just kidding, or am I?

**Time and Fate: **Okay, I checked out your story.

**Hirina: **Yeah, I know it was short, but I couldn't think of anything else.

**East-Company-506101: **Yeah, Kouga's attention span really is short.

**shadowyoukokitsune: **Well, I always thought Hiei was faster than Kouga even with his shards.

**Rei Minamino: **Thank you for all those nice compliments and don't worry, there is no way I will make Kurama fall in love with Kagome! I think Kagome should stick to the guys that already like her.

**sleep all day rock all night: **Thank you and don't worry about not reviewing earlier.


	14. Words of Wisdom

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Ooh, I'm getting closer to 100 reviews! I want to thank JoannaKuwabara, sleep all day rock all night, Hirina, Rei Minamino, ficfan3484, Easy-Company-506101, Time and Fate for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **Yu Yu Hakusho is great, but I don't own it. Inuyasha is too and I don't own that either.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 14: Words of Wisdom**

After a whole week of school, the weekend finally arrived, along with frequent visits from Inuyasha to force Kagome to come back, which always ended with a 'sit.' The week went by very normally, with Kagome's grandpa trying to get a date with Genkai, and failed everytime. Also, he taunted Kagome by telling her that Genkai really does have spiritual energy, but Kagome always won by saying that he doesn't, putting him back into a bad mood, but seeing Genkai cheers him up.

It was early in the morning and Yusuke and the others were forced to wake up to climb the stairs that led to the Higurashi Shrine. Genkai was also accompanying them, but she stayed in the middle of the group to avoid the old man. Mrs. Higurashi led them inside. (Kagome's family knows about Yusuke and his friends going through the well.)

"So, who do we have to meet with?" Kagome asked.  
"Botan and Koenma," Yusuke said.

"Koenma is your boss, right?" she asked.

"Yup, that creepy, pacifier suckin' toddler is our boss," Yusuke said.

"Does he really have a pacifier?"

"Yes," they said in unison.

"I thought you said you would stop calling me a 'toddler'?" It was Koenma. He had magically popped into room, which really gets on their nerves.

"So, you must be Kagome?" he asked, talking through his pacifier. Kagome nodded. _They are right he does have a pacifier, but why isn't he toddler like Yusuke keeps saying? _she thought.

"Hello, Kagome," Botan said.

"Let's cut to chase, I want to know what happened in the Feudal era," Koenma said.

"Well, when we met Kagome and her friends, an injured man came. He said that his village was attacked by a wind demon. They thought it was Kagura, Naraku's female incarnation. So, we went to find her," Kurama began.

"But, we found a headman that was being controlled by Naraku by using a shard. We also found these Flower Maidens that also had jewel shards. Naraku killed two of them," Yusuke continued.

"Hiei and Inuyasha, a half demon, defeated the other remaining maidens. We managed to get all the shards involved. But that injured man we met was really a special shapeshifting demon that can supress its demonic power so we couldn't sense it and since the man claimed memory loss, it would have been pointless for Hiei to read his mind. He tried to kill Kaede, an eldery priestess, but Genkai stopped him," Kurama concluded.

"Yeah, and we're still not sure if Kagura really did destroy all the villages. She probably did," Kagome said.

"Hm, I see, so you have no idea where Naraku is, correct?" Koenma asked.

"Um, right," Kuwabara said.

Koenma was silent for a moment. He looked like he was trying to find the right words. "HOW CAN YOU NOT FIND A DEMON WITH THAT MUCH POWER!" he shouted.

"Um, he conceals himself in a barrier," Kagome said timidly.

"A barrier? And since when can that stop you, Yusuke?" Koenma asked.

"Since now."

"Yusuke, you incompetent excuse for a Spirit Detective! This mission is too important to screw up! Father will have my hide if you do!"

"Yeah, I heard about the spankings," Yusuke replied as if he didn't care about what Koenma said. Koenma had reached his boiling point, but before he could blow his top, Kagome beat him to it.

"YOU ARE THE INCOMPETENT ONE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT NARAKU CAN REALLY DO! HE HAS DESTROYED COUNTLESS LIVES THROUGH HIS TRICKERY AND RUTHLESSNESS!" Koenma was taken back by this outburst from Kagome. No one had ever yelled at him like this, except maybe his father. This girl had guts. "AND NARAKU ENJOYS HURTING PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY! AND WE ARE DOING THE BEST WE CAN TO FIND HIM!" Koenma gave a great shudder. Kagome has a good set of lungs.

Yusuke clapped for Kagome. "Bravo, Kagome, bravo. I didn't know you had it in you. You actually yelled worse than Keiko, and longer," he said. Kagome blushed from embarassment. Botan hit him upside the head.

"Anyway," Koenma said, he had inched away from Kagome, "Genkai, do you have any advice for them before they leave?"

"Don't die," Genkai said.

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You mean to tell me that you don't have any words of wisdom for your student?" Koenma said irritably.

"Yeah, let's go with that," Genkai said, "Oh, that's right, I wanted to ask you something. Does Naraku have any quirks that won't allow him to die?"

"He can regenerate," Kagome said.

"Oh, then I do have words of wisdom: aim for his heart."

"Isn't that kinda obvious?" Botan questioned.

"Yes, but the Dimwit is too stupid to figure it out on his own."

"Hey!" Yusuke shouted.

The door of the room they were sitting in began opening. Someone was trying to get in.

"Souta, I thought I told you to keep Grandpa out!" Kagome shouted.

"It ain't Souta or your grandpa!" a voice said from behind the door.

"Inuyasha," they concluded.

"What do you want?" Kagome asked after he practically knocked down the door while keeping Souta away from him.  
"It's been five days! Why haven't you come back?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I've been busy!" Inuyasha looked around and saw Koenma.

"Who's that?" he asked, pointing to Koenma.

"I am Lord Koenma, ruler of life and death, and you better be nice to me, or else."

"What is that in your mouth?" Inuyash asked.

"It's nothing! Just go back and finish the mission!" Koenma ordered while covering his pacifier.

Koenma and Botan went back to Spirit World and Genkai narrowly escaped the clutches of Grandpa, the shrine keeper and the priest with no spirit energy whatsoever. Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara went ahead of Inuyasha and Kagome to the well.

"Inuyasha, were you worried about me? I mean I did tell you that I was supposed to meet with someone important," Kagome asked.

"Um, well, you were gone for so long, I thought maybe something happened. They did mention that demons still exist in this time." Inuyasha looked away because he was blushing.

_He really does care, in his own weird way,_ Kagome thought as she was gazing at him

"Why are looking at me like? We have to go back," he said and pulled Kagome to the well.

_Why does he always have to ruin moments like this? _she thought bitterly.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Back in the Feudal era, Miroku, Sango, and Shippo were getting along with the usual business. Sango had gone back to visit her village and Miroku was reading the palms of the ladies in the village. Shippo was also practicing his Fox Fire on unsuspecting beetles.

It was very warm today. The sun was shining brightly, but summer was still awhile off. The weather was getting stranger and stranger everyday. But, they payed no attention to it. The weather was always unpredictable, unless you count the weather technology in the future.

Kagome, Inuyasha, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei emerged from the well.

"It's so hot here!" Yusuke complained.

"Stop complaining!" they shouted.

"Geez, I'm just trying to make conversation," Yusuke muttered.

"Yusuke, is right. It's hotter here since we left and it's barely spring," Kurama commented.

"Finally, someone is on my side!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"Shut up already," Hiei said and hit him on the head.

"Let's go find the others before you two end up killing each other," Kuwabara suggested because he saw Yusuke and Hiei were having a face off.

"Well, we'll have to wait for Sango, she went back to her village. Miroku and Shippo should be here somewhere," Inuyasha said.

On the way to the village, they found Shippo practicing his attacks. He wanted to get better. He wanted to help the rest of them in battle.  
"Shippo, come on!" Kagome called. Shippo came running toward them.

"Hey," Shippo said.

"Where's Miroku?" Inuyasha asked.

"I think he's reading palms," Shippo answered.

"I should've know," Inuyasha grumbled.

They found Miroku in the village inn. He was reading the palms of the women and making up fortunes like 'you will have many children' or 'you have met a very handsome man that you will end up with' or anything else that involves baring children and himself, and he calls himself a 'monk.'

"Come on you lecher," Inuyasha said and dragged Miroku out.

"Inuyasha, that didn't give the ladies a good impression," Miroku said.

"Who cares?"

"Um, Miroku, did Sango say when she was coming back?" Kagome asked.

"She said she would come back sometime today."

As they waited for Sango, everyone went around village doing whatever they wished, as long as it didn't involve blowing things up.

Miroku tried to read palms agian, but that embarrassing interruption from Inuyasha drove the young women away. Kagome was gathering medicinal herbs with Kaede and Inuyasha went somewhere into the forest to train.

Kurama went into the forest to enjoy the scenery for once without the constant complaints from Yusuke. He found himself at a small spring with an equally small waterfall. The plants were beautiful, but the sudden heat wave is causing some of the plants to wilt. Kurama bent down and used his mastery over plants to give it a little jumps start on life. The flower that was wilting immediately straighten and the petals became healthy and a bright pink again.

"Wow, that was cool," Shippo said. Kurama turned around

"Thank you."

"Yusuke said you were a plant master, but I didn't know you were that good," Shippo said. Kurama chuckled.

"What is your fox abillty, Shippo?" Kurama asked.

"Well, I can do Fox Fire and I can create illusions and I can shapeshift."

"That's quite the variety. Have you had any proper training?"

"No, everyone else is too busy with their own training and their dreams of defeating Naraku," Shippo replied, "Not that its bad. I understand that Naraku really did hurt each of them, but no one really has the time to help me with my abilities."

"Would you like training?"

"Really? You mean it?" Shippo asked excitedly. Finally someone has the time to help him.

"Of course," Kurama smiled, "Would you like to start now?"

"Yes! I mean, if you have time," Shippo said. Kurama nodded.

"Let's start with your shapeshifting. Turn into Yusuke." Shippo transformed into Yusuke. He had all the details right, except for one thing: his tail. Shippo's puffy tail was still there. Kurama sweat dropped. "We need to do something with that tail of yours."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was practicing with his Tetsusaiga. He was swinging it all over the place with great skill.

Kuwabara was walking through the forest and stumbled upon Inuyasha training. _Whoa, how can he even hold up that huge sword?_ Kuwabara thought.

Inuyasha's ears twitched. He heard something in the bushes. He jumped to the bush with his sword resting on his shoulder. "Kuwabara, that you?"

"Yeah, and watch where you land next time. You stepped on my foot!"  
"Not my fault if you decide to sneak around in bushes," Inuyasha retorted.

"Oh, yeah! You're not that tough," Kuwabara said.

"I bet I could I beat the crap outta you!"

"You're on!" Kuwabara said. He held out his hand and a bright yellowish light erupted from his hand. It was pure energy. It was forming something. When it settled down, it was in the form of a sword.

"Looks like you do have some tricks up your sleeve," Inuyasha said. He held out his Tetsusaiga. They charged at each other.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Sango finally arrived back. It was only mid afternoon, which ment they could continue their journey without much wait. She found Kagome, Kaede, Miroku, and Yusuke in Kaede's hut. She had also seen Hiei in a tree earlier.

"Hey, Sango!" Kagome called.

"Hello, everyone," Sango said to everyone. Kurama walked in, followed by another Kurama?  
"Since when are there two Kuramas?" Yusuke asked.

"You really can't tell us apart?" the first Kurama asked.

"Yup."

"One of us is a fake," the second Kurama stated. Yusuke did a mental eeny meeny miny mo to figure it out. He pointed to the first one.

"Actually, Yusuke, the second one is the fake," Miroku stated. The second Kurama disappeared into a ball of smoke revealing Shippo.  
"Shippo, that was amazing! Usually when you transform into a human or demon, you still have your tail," Kagome said happily.

"Yeah, Kurama helped me," Shippo said, "but I was kinda worried I would mess up the voice."

"Don't worry, you didn't. I couldn't tell you two apart and I've known Kurama longer than you have," Yusuke said, "Wait, I don't think that came out right."

At that moment, Inuyasha and Kuwabara came in. They were covered in scratches and bruises.

"What happened to you?" Kagome asked.

"Well, the orange haired idiot probably ran into a tree," Hiei said as he walked in. Everyone else chuckled.

"Hey! For your information, we were training!" Kuwabara shouted.

"Oh, so you call running into a tree 'training'? I think you finally the perfect training regiment," Hiei said as he rolled his eyes.

"I did not run into a tree!"

"Sure you didn't," Yusuke said sarcastically.

"Stop this bickering. You have a mission to do," Kaede scolded.

"She's right, we should get going," Sango said.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **School officially starts in two days! Let's all hope that I don't get too much homework so I can update.

I also thought it would be cute if Kurama helps Shippo with his abilities. I haven't seen an episode where anyone helps Shippo actually help him train his power. Besides, having another fox demon to help him is good for him. Anyway, here are the replies:

**JoannaKuwabara: **I guess you're right, I'll miss school. Oh, and good luck with becoming a writer.

**sleep all day rock all night: **Don't worry, I'm not offended that you don't like like yaoi fics. I don't like yaoi either. All my stories and future stories are and will be yaoi-free.

**Hirina: **I will add some more.

**Rei Minamino: **Well, the whole Kagome and Inuyasha thing will probably be a lot like it is in the show. Maybe they'll actually end up together at the ending of my story, but I'm not promising anything.

**ficfan3484: **I'm glad you like their day at school.

**Easy-Company-506101: **As the story progresses, there will hopefully be more damage caused by Hiei and the others.

**Time and Fate: **Thanks.

Please review and no flames please!


	15. The Journey Continues

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Keep the reviews coming! I wanna thank ficfan3484, sleep all day rock all night, JoannaKuwabara, shadowyoukokitsune, Hirina, Paksennarion ( ), Time and Fate, Easy-Company-506101, Rei Minamino, Mikichi the Vampire Slayer, Soul's Eclipse for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Inuyasha. They are both unattainable and that's why I'm writing fanfiction instead of doing something the creators would do with it. Now, if I won the lottery I would try tobuy at least one of them.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 15: The Journey Continues**

A day has passed since they came back to Feudal era. Yusuke was glad to be back because he didn't have to go to school.

They were on their way to a village. A rumor was going around that there was a village with some sort of problem. The rumors were vague, so they didn't know if it was from a demon or maybe some freak accidents. As they drew nearer and nearer to the village, the weather became stranger and stranger. At first, it was the normal heat wave they were experiencing back with Kaede, but it became hotter and hotter until it became unbearable.

"I can't walk anymore," Yusuke panted.

"Will you just shut- Oh, I give up. It's too hot," Inuyasha complained.

"If you stop complaining, this would be much easier," Kagome said. She too was affected by the heat.  
"The heat isn't that bad," Hiei commented.  
"Easy for you to say. You're love fire," Kuwabara retorted.

Kilala was flying through the sky. Being a fire cat has its advantages. For one thing, heat isn't a big issue. As Kilala flew, she spotted something strange. There were thunder clouds up ahead, but it was small and it was too close to the ground. Kilala flew back down to the others. She nudged Sango.  
"What is it, Kilala?" Sango droopily asked. Kilala growled and pointed where the stranger cloud was.

"Let's go check it out," Miroku said. He was standing right next to Sango and he had no energy left to do his 'perverted' methods.

They followed Kilala to an opening. There was the sound of water nearby and a screaming person. The person was running toward them and he was being chased by something. They looked carefully and saw a small rain cloud. It was raining on the poor man. The man was soaking wet.

"If you ask me, that's a blessing in disguise," Yusuke said.  
"No one asked you," Hiei said.

The man ran by them and Yusuke asked, "Why are you freaking out? This rain cloud is great in this heat."

The man stopped and the rain cloud began raining on him. "It isn't great if you're being rained on for the last week."

"Week?" Shippo exclaimed.

"Yes," the man said sadly.

"But why?" Kagome asked.

"Because the village guardian is unhappy with us and has decided to curse those who oppose him," he explained. Then he sneezed.

"Some guardian, using his powers to bully people around," said Kuwabara angrily.

"Shh, don't say things like that. The guardian will hear you and curse you too."

Yusuke snorted. "Who would want to curse Kuwabara? He's already cursed with that face of his."

"Urameshi! I'll kill you!" Kuwabara shouted and chased after him.

"Will you take us to your village? Maybe we can help," Kagome asked sweetly.  
"No, no, no, no, if the guardian finds out, we'll be plagued by floods and blizzards and who knows what else!" the man said, nearly screaming. He ran off into a random direction into the forest.

"That was weird," Inuyasha said.

"I say we follow him," Yusuke said as he dodged a punch sent by Kuwabara.

"But he just ran off into a random direction," Shippo said.

"Unless the village is concealed in the forest," Kurama said.

"Let's go," Kuwabara said after he blocked a hit from Yusuke.

They raced off into the forest, but there was no sign of any traps or obstacles that might protect a village hiding from travelers. It was normal, except for the weather of course. It was getting hotter! It had to be at least a 110 degrees, well, that's what Yusuke was claiming. There was only one sign that ment they were getting closer and that was a dried up spring and dead, dried up plants.

But, sadly, their efforts were in vain. Any traces of the man had disappeared and the running just made them even hotter and tired. They managed to find shade in a huge tree. As they rested, Shippo saw something moving. It wasn't in the bushes. He saw the tree's shadow moving. There was no wind, but then the shadow of a head popped out.

"Guys, I think someone is in the tree," Shippo said.

"What?" Inuyasha asked irritably.

Everyone looked up and sure enough, someone was in the tree and not only that, but there was a house. A tree house. They looked around and saw more tree houses. People had made a village completely in the trees. But they looked around more closely, only half of the village was in the trees. They saw huts on the ground a little farther than they were resting.

"Geez, how could we miss that?" Yusuke asked.

"Maybe the heat is just giving us illusions," Kagome suggested.

"I don't think so, at least not an illusion this big," Kurama said.

"Well, the heat did make us miss that," Miroku said.

"Hey, why didn't short stack tell us anything? He likes fire and heat," Kuwabara wondered as he wiped the sweat of his forehead. They looked back and saw Hiei asleep near the tree. They sweat dropped.

"Even though Hiei enjoys fire, it does get tiring running in this heat," Kurama said, "I'm surprised no one else has fallen- never mind." They saw Yusuke, Shippo, and Kilala were talking naps underneath the tree.

The man they saw earlier came up to them. The rain cloud was still there. "What are you doing here?"

"We've come to help you out, whether you like it or not," Kagome said menacingly.

"Fine," he replied, "Maybe you can find a way to rid me of this accursed cloud so I can return to my family." The man turned around. "Come follow me." They woke Hiei and Yusuke up and carried Shippo and Kilala so they could keep sleeping.

The man led them to the area of the huts on the ground. They saw many other people with strange weather issues. Some people had a blizzard over their head and some hurricane, while others just had lightening. The lightening didn't look very strong though.

They entered the man's hut. The hut was wet everywhere and the ground was muddy.

"I apologize for the condition of my home. It's because of this damn cloud," the man said.

"Don't worry, we understand," Kagome said.

"So when did all this cursing start?" Miroku asked.

"It all started a week ago. Our guardian began cursing people as a punishment for crimes against nature," the man explained, "But the so-called crimes against nature were accidents."

"Accidents? What kind of accidents?" Yusuke said, trying to hold back a yawn.

"Well, for me, I accidently stepped on a flower while trying to catch my daughter who was falling from the tree."

"That's not fair!" Kuwabara shouted, "But why does half the village live in trees?"  
"It's because for generations everyone here has respected nature and we've made it our home. Our guardian has also protected this village from intruders and outsiders. But when one of us was cursed, we were forced to live on the ground because our strange weather predicaments would cause the wood in the tree houses to rot. The guardian has never revealed its power of weather like this."

"Oh, did you have a reason for leaving your village today?" Sango asked.

"I wanted to see how far the weather powers of our guardian had spread."

"The control of weather of this guardian must be great because its effects have reached all the way to the village we came from," Miroku commented.

"Our guardian is a kind spirit, why would something like this happen?"

"Maybe there's a demon threatening it or something," suggested Kuwabara.

"It could be, but what does a demon gain from all this?" Miroku wondered.

"The suffering of others?" Yusuke asked.

"Do you sense any shards, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, completely ignoring what Yusuke said.

"No, at least not yet."

"We should still check it out," Kurama said, "Naraku could be behind this."

"But before we go, one more question," Sango said, "Is all this heat the guardian's fault? I hardly think one guardian would cause a heat wave this bad." The man nodded.

"The guardian is located in a shrine in the middle of the forest and they only way they could get there was by using a cave system about a mile from the village. But the cave is infested by demons," he said, "Be careful."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I know, this is kinda short, but it's better than nothing. I'm flooded with homework.Feel free to ask any questions, but some might be answered later on. Anyway, here are the replies:

**ficfan3484: **I thought it was sweet too, and I needed to add some more romance.

**sleep all day rock all night: **Kikyo will make an appearance later on, same with Sesshomaru. You just have to wait!

**JoannaKuwabara: **You are too kind!

**shadowyoukokitsune: **I'll try!

**Hirina: **Hm, high school wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

**Parksennarion: **Thank you!

**Time and Fate: **Miroku could tell because I figured he's a monk so he needs to be able to tell fakes like that apart. It's kinda like how he can actually sense a house or something possessed by a demon, when he's not lying of course. And also when Yusuke pointed to the real one, nothing happened to show he was right so Miroku also took that as a little clue.

**Easy-Company-506101: **Hm, I didn't think of that. I'll do it next time!

**Rei Minamino: **Kurama and Shippo are my favorite too!

**Mikichi the Vampire Slayer: **I'm glad you like my story!

**Soul's Eclipse: **I'll try!


	16. The Mysterious Cave

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** Alright **OVER** **100 **reviews! It's time to celebrate! _-does a stupid dance-_ Ahem, now onto thanking people. I want to thank Rei Minamino, sleep all day rock all night, JoannaKuwabara, Time and Fate, Easy-Company-506/101, ficfan3484, Soul's Eclipse, Hirina, shadowyoukokitsune, Paksennarion ( ) for making this possible! I am so happy.

**Disclaimer: **I don't anything except for some dvds and merchandise and this cool Yu Yu Hakusho calendar I have hanging next to me. **I have OVER 100 reviews!**

**The Feudal Era Across the Street:**

**Chapter 16: The Mysterious Cave**

They easily walked the mile that separated the village and the cave. As they neared the cave, the weather changed from heat to snow. It was strange, if they took a couple steps toward the village, it would be hot, but a couple steps toward the cave, there would be snow. Yes, this guardian was either very gifted or had the power of the jewel shards on his or her side.

"I am so glad we have people that say the weather every stinkin' mornin'!" Yusuke exclaimed as half of him stood in the heat wave and the other half in the snow.

"I can't wait till this is over with!" Inuyasha also complained. It's not very nice being bare footed in snow.

"Shut up, both of you," Kagome said. She was _very_ tired of the complaining.

"I know! Short stack can melt the snow for us!" exclaimed Kuwabara.

"Why on earth would I want to waste my energy for something so trivial?" Hiei retorted.

"Because you care about us?" Kuwabara asked hopefully.

"Me? Care about you?" Hiei asked and he had a hard time supressing his laughter.

"What? It could happen!"

Yusuke and Kurama shook their heads. If Hiei started to care about Kuwabara, then the apocalyspe is here, then again, even that wouldn't happen at the end of the world.

"Let's just go in!" Yusuke shouted suddenly.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I'm not wearing shoes!" Inuyasha shouted angrily.

"So, the people with shoes will go in," Kuwabara chimed in.

"Well, it's the most logical thing we've heard so far and besides, the rest of us should stay behind. If this is a demon's fault, then maybe it has minions that might attack the village if it finds out we are plotting to get rid of it," Miroku stated.

"So, it's decided then," Sango said.

"I'll stay behind, I'm wearing sandals," said Miroku.

"I'll stay behind too, it's too cold in there with this skirt," added Kagome.

"Take Kilala with you," said Sango as she handed Kilala to Kagome, "I'm also going."

"Okay, then, me, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Sango are going in," Yusuke said.

"No way! I'm going too!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Inuyasha, you're bare footed. Your feet will get frost bitten in there," Kagome retorted, "And besides, there's like a foot of snow and we can't waste time turning back to pick up shoes."

"Feh."

They bid their farewells as Kagome, Miroku, Inuyasha, Shippo, and Kilala traveled back into the oven of a village. The rest stared into the almost frozen cave. As they ventured inside, the air became colder. A frozen wind blew automatically into their faces. The snow crunched under their feet. The stalagmites and stalactites were frozen. The water that dripped off it was frozen in middair and connected to it by a slim piece of ice. There was a bat frozen at the bottom of the cave. "Let's hope we don't end up like that bat," muttered Sango.

The further they went, the colder it became. It also seemed like the snow had become deeper. They were now drudging through knee deep snow. "Is it me or did the snow get deeper?" Kuwabara asked, making sure he wasn't imagining things.

"It's you. Of course it got deeper!" Yusuke shouted angrily.

"Stop arguing, we can't stop now," Kurama said calmly in their situation.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The rest had arrived at the village awhile ago. They were sitting under the shade of a huge tree, enjoying the weather. Whatever the reason was, the heat wasn't as bad as it was before. Kagome was enjoying the shade, along with Shippo and Kilala who were curled near her, sleeping. Inuyasha was sitting in a tree looking toward the tree houses. Miroku was the only restless one. He was pacing back and forth.

"Miroku, will you rest already?" Kagome asked impatiently, tired of his pacing.

"Huh?" he jerked his head up, "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"About what?" asked Inuyasha, jumping from the tree.

"Well, it doesn't make sense, why is the heat so, well, not as hot as before?" pondered Miroku.

"Maybe the guardian is too busy piling snow into the cave to worry about the village," Inuyasha suggested. Miroku looked a little worried.

"Inuyasha," she scolded, "Don't worry, Miroku, I'm sure Sango's fine. From what we've seen and heard, Yusuke and the others are really strong. Nothing will happen to her when she's with them." But that's what worried Miroku. Although he said himself he would stay behind, he didn't want Sango to be with other men. He didn't expect Sango to tag along. It seems like even the most perverted monk can become jealous.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

They had been traveling for a couple hours in the cave and still no luck. So far it had only been one path. The snow was still the same height, but it had gotten colder. The wind had been persistent and it hurt. Frozen wind constantly being blown into someone's face without that person wearing anything warm is bad.  
"Hiei, p-p-p-please make f-f-f-fire," Yusuke stuttered.

"No" was the only response from the fire demon for the last hour.

"F-f-f-fire?" Kuwabara also stuttered.

"It m-m-m-may be c-c-c-cold, but we can h-h-h-handle it," Sango said as she was rubbing her arms for some sort of warmth.

"Look ahead," Kurama said.

"Aren't you c-c-c-cold, Kurama?" Yusuke asked, completely ignoring what he said a second ago.

"No, as a demon I've learned to handle extreme changes in temperatue and if you look ahead, you will see about five different paths we can take," Kurama said.

"F-f-f-fire?" Kuwabara asked again, stuttering. Yusuke put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

They stood there examing which path would be best to take.

"If we don't hurry up, I'm gonna freeze to death and I don't wanna die before I'm supposed to be born!" Yusuke shouted and beat the stuttering for this once.

"We c-c-c-can split up," suggested Sango.

"I don't think that would be wise in the condition you three are in," stated Kurama.

"We can t-t-t-take it," said Kuwabara, supporting Sango's idea.

"What if you three suddenly collapse in one of the tunnels. The rest of us won't know until it's too late," said Kurama.

"The fox is right, we can't risk that, besides, I want to bring the end to the idiot," Hiei smirked.

"Hey! If we weren't in this c-c-c-cave freezing our asses off, I would k-k-k-kill you," Kuwabara shouted, he was louder than Yusuke's previous outburst.

"Don't shout that loud. We don't want a cave in," Kurama warned.

"That c-c-c-can happen?" Yusuke asked stupidly. Apparantly the cold was blocking his reasoning.

"Yes, you idiot," Hiei said and rolled his eyes.

"Well, what d-d-do you suggest, Kurama?" asked Sango.

"Kuwabara does have a good sixth sense when it comes to these things."

"If his brain isn't frozen that is. Then again, he doesn't have one," Hiei added to Kurama's statement.

"Hey," Kuwabara said, "But I will see if I c-c-can sense anything." He closes his eyes and barely moved. He raised his hand and pointed to the path on the second to the right.

"Let's go, I ain't getting any warmer," Yusuke announced. Hiei turned around and used his sword to create a marking on the tunnel they came from so they can find their way back.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome decided to explore the village. Maybe she might find some clues about the strange guardian that has suddenly decided to hurt the villagers. First, she tried to speak to the tree house living people, but that was useless. Every single person that lived in a tree house avoided her. _I've heard that talking to strangers could be dangerous, but this is ridiculous, _Kagome thought.

Kagome continued her walk through the village and found her way to the part of the village with the huts. She found a woman with a small snow storm over her head.

"Excuse me," Kagome called.

"What is?" the woman said, reluctantly turning around.

"I just wanted to ask if you have any idea why the guardian is doing this?" Kagome asked.

"I don't know," she replied, "It's supposed to be a punishment, but all I did was pull weeds from my garden. Just weeds..."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The others had been traveling a good distance in the freezing cave. The path Kuwabara had picked wasn't very bad, unless you count the dropping temperature. "I hate you, K-k-k-kuwabara, I bet the other t-t-t-tunnels weren't this cold," said Yusuke, rubbing his arms for warmth.

"Shut up, Urameshi! At least I don't c-c-c-complain all the t-t-t-time," retorted Kuwabara.  
"Shut up b-b-b-both of you!" Sango said angrily.

They walked in silence after that. The snow in the tunnel was lessening and lessening. The temperature was also getting warmer.

"See, Urameshi, I was right," Kuwabara proudly said.

"Shut up."

The tunnel was beginning to curve. It almost seemed like a circle. They walked in those curves for more than an hour. The snow drastically increased at one point. "You were wrong," Yusuke said bitterly. They reached an area with five different paths.

"Which one now?" Sango asked. Hiei walked up to one of the tunnel walls and examined it closely.

"We're back were we started," he announced.

"What!" Kuwabara shouted.

"Quiet," Kurama scolded. Kuwabara mumbled a 'sorry.'

"I made a mark on the tunnel wall were we came from and apparently, the path the fool picked for us led us in a circle and brought us back here," explained Hiei.

"We're gonna die in this cave. I just know it," said Yusuke.

_I'm sure I was right. What went wrong?_ thought Kuwabara.

"Can't Hiei use his third eye?" suggested Sango.

"Don't you think I tried? The power used to make this snow is so great that my Jagan can't see through it all," Hiei explained.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome went back into the shade of the tree. Shippo and Kilala had just woken up and Inuyasha was still in the tree, surveying the area. Miroku was sitting down and he seemed to be in deep thought. _This is strange. Usually when we come to a new village, Miroku goes straight to the women,_ Kagome thought.

She sat down next to him and asked, "Is something worng?"

"No, it's just they've been gone for too long."

Inuyasha jumped down and said, "I'm getting shoes and I'm going into that cave."

"Inuyasha!" scolded Kagome.

"No demon has attacked. No demon will ever attack. Let's go," he said irritably. Miroku stood up. He took out a two pairs of new shoes. He smirked.

"I like the way you think, Miroku," Inuyasha smirked and took a pair.

"Oh, and what about me? If you haven't noticed I'll freeze my but off," Kagome said. Miroku went to a nearby tree and pulled a pair of pants he had hid earlier.

"Did you steal this?" Kagome asked.

"Um, I wouldn't call it stealing per say. More like borrowing without any intention of returning," he said. She rolled her eyes, but gladly accepted it.

"See that wasn't too hard, now onward to the cave!" Inuyasha said and pointed to the cave's direction.

"What about Kilala and me?" Shippo asked, spoiling his mood. Inuyasha hit him on the head. "Ow!"

"Sit."

"We can wrap Kilala and you in warm blankets," Miroku suggested.

"Don't tell me you stole blankets and hid it in that tree over there," Kagome said, pointing to the tree on the right.

"Actually, it's this tree." He pointed to the tree on the left of the tree Kagome pointed to. She sweat dropped.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Hey! I can't believe I've reached **OVER** **100** reviews! I feel so special! I'm gonna clarify some things. Kilala didn't go in the beginning because, even though she's a fire cat, I don't think she would survive long in the freezing temperature. Now, if you watched the later episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, you'll know why Hiei can survive in freezing temperatures. If you just watch the ones on Cartoon Network, well, it's a major spoiler. If you really want to know, leave me your e-mail address or indicate that I can find it on your homepage and I'll tell you.

School is just piling on the work. I just got through five tests and four were in the same day! Here are the replies:

**Rei Minamino: **I totally agree!

**sleep all day rock all night: **Thank you!

**JoannaKuwabara: **Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

**Time and Fate: **Oh.

**East-Company-506/101: **I kinda think they're both equal in Yusuke's eyes, but air conditioning is better.

**ficfan3484: **Yeah, it would be fun!

**Soul's Eclipse: **Nice nice review review!

**Hirina: **My favorite color is red and I prefer Pepsi. Those are really random questions by the way, but I don't care. I'm really random too.

**shadowyoukokitsune: **Don't be fooled by what everything says. (hint, hint!)

**Paksennarion ( ):** Yeah, I've seen Hiei asleep in a couple episodes and he is cute like that, but I still like Kurama better.


	17. The Guardian

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** What's up? Anyway,I wanna thank the following people for reviewing: JoannaKuwabara, sleep all day rock all night, ficfan3484, Time and Fate, ilikewhitetigers, Rei Minamino, Hirina, Prismdragon ( ), bill ( ), gizmostar, and shadowyoukokitsune.

**Disclaimer: **Anime is great, but hey, I don't own any anime, especially my favorite, Yu Yu Hakusho, or Inuyasha. Great, I just made myself really depressed...

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 17: The Guardian**

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Sango went through all the different paths of the cave, and all of it ended up right back where they started from. Anyway, the point was that the entire cave was leading them in circles and there had to be somesort of secret passage to let them move on.

Sango, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were resting near a fire, which took Kurama so much persuasion to have Hiei create it. They were warming up and any bits of snow that were stuck to them or maybe a couple frozen fingers were melting, leaving them with the feeling of sipping hot cocoa near a lit fireplace in a snowstorm.

The fire crackled and the three almost frozen fighters were holding their hands over the fire. The heat from the fire melted the surrounding snow. The dirt underneath was showing. The fire combined with the melting snow made it a little muddy. The not so frozen wall they were leaning on for support was also becoming warmer from the heat that was given off from the fire.

"You know what was I thinking?" Kuwabara said.

"Let me guess, you were thinking about Yukina," Yusuke said in an all knowing voice.

"No! Well, yeah, but I was thinking that maybe this cave is enchanted or something," Kuwabara said, "You know what I mean, like maybe this place has a spell or a curse."

Yusuke snorted. "Like that'll happen."

"Actually, demons using spells can be quite common. Rogue priestesses also do these sort of things," Sango explained.

Kurama and Hiei were occupying themselves by going in and out of the tunnels, trying to find a secret path, a hole, or even an abnormally large abyss, but they weren't lucky. Kurama eventually sat down next to the others for a break. But Hiei didn't give up. He decided to search the large cavern they were in.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome, Inuyasha, Miroku, Shippo and Kilala had been in the cave for what seemed like an hour. There was only one path and they passed a familiar ice statue: the frozen bat.

Shippo and Kilala were wrapped tightly in the blankets. Miroku was holding onto the fire cat and Kagome was holding onto Shippo. Shippo's eyes was the only thing visible from the blanket. His turquise eyes were scanning the area. His eyes became watery at times from the wind, but he clearly saw the predicament they were in. If they couldn't find the exit soon, they might end up being a statue like the bat.

Kilala was meowing constantly and trying to wriggle out of Miroku's grasp. She was able to pick up Sango's scent through the snow and was trying to find her. She was very worried about her master and friend. "Kilala, sit still, Sango trusted us to keep you warm," said Miroku.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The fire was still crackling. The fires of hell that Hiei summoned can burn for a long time. Hiei also took a break from the search. Kurama looked down to see the ground around the fire and noticed something strange. There was dirt which was brown, but there was blue mixed in with it. He knelt down and began digging through the snow to clear the ground.

"Why are you doing that?" Yusuke asked. Kurama didn't answer instead he showed everyone that there was strange markings on the ground. It was like a spell, an enchantment.

"Hiei, see if you can melt the rest of the snow here," said Kurama, standing up and dusting off the dirt and snow. Hiei skillfully sent a fireball that traveled through the foot of snow, melting it.

The heat from the fireball melted the other parts of the cavern floor. In mere minutes, the entire cavern floor was devoid of snow and ice. The entire ground had strange blue markings. It was a huge symbol with squares, triangles, circles, wavy lines, and many other shapes and lines. It looked like a magic spell.

Kurama stood near the middle. The markings looked as if it was erased. "This is a sealing spell," Sango said, "And by the looks of it, a strong demon was sealed away."

"How do you know?" Kurama asked her as he walked back.

"I saw pictures of it at my village. It's a different method to defeating a demon. For demon slayers, using a sealing spell is a last resort, but it would take a long time to make properly. This one looks like it took maybe a dozen or more slayers to make. At least half of them would have to distract the demon."

"I told you this place had spells, Urameshi," Kuwabara whispered.

Sango was looking around the markings. "The place in the middle that seems erased is where the demon broke free or maybe something or someone helped it," she said.

Kurama walked to the corners of the cavern and noticed there were smaller markings, but it was different from the big one.

"Look at the corners, there are different spells. By the looks of it, it was made recently," Kurama told the others.

"But what are these used for?" Yusuke asked.

"This is to lead an enemy in circles which would eventually lead to their death because it stopped anyone that entered to leave," Kurama explained, "It also blocked Hiei's Jagan."

Hiei rubbed his foot over the spell to get rid of it. "What are you doing?" Kuwabara asked.

"Getting rid of them so we can move on with our lives." He then rubbed away the other three.

There were bright lights where the spells were. The light gathered at the entrances of the different paths. The light formed a huge ball and contracted. It then suddenly explanded, forming smaller balls of light. It was zooming through the air, bouncing off walls. They ducked. Eventually the light faded and so did four of the paths. The only path remaining was the one Kuwabara had picked earlier. A smile lit up on Kuwabara's face and he said, triumphantly, "I told you so."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Inuyasha's ears twitched. He stopped and sniffed the air. "Something happened. It's full of energy I can't really explain," he said.

"I sense it too," Miroku said.

"Is it bad?" Kagome asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Inuyasha began running. Miroku and Kagome followed, but the snow was slowing all three of them down, but it was decreasing as they went forward.

Everything was a blur in Inuyasha's eyes. He wanted to see what that was. What if... what if they were in trouble? What if something terrible happened? No, he had to shake that thought from his head. Maybe it was Yusuke. No one had seen his real power yet. He hoped that was the case. Or it could be some demon magic that Hiei or Kurama did. He really wanted one of those to be the possibility and not anything bad. . .

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The path was short. Yusuke and the others saw the end. They were able to see somesort of light. They reached the end of the cave. As they emerged, there was fog everywhere the eye could see. It wasn't light fog either, it was thick and depressing.

Kurama ventured forward. The fog was still thick. He accidenly kicked a stone that skidded in to a puddle. Other than that, it was complete silence. He only walked for only about a minute, but it seemed like hours in the silence and the eerie fog.

The fog had something strange about it. It was not only dark, but it had a sense of evil and it felt humid. It was getter harder to breathe the more he walked forward. Yusuke and the others began following Kurama once they saw nothing happened, yet. All of their breathing became more like panting. The fog was restricting their oxygen, but they had to keep going forward. Suddenly, the fog began diasppearing slowly and just a bit ahead of them was a small shrine.

It was falling apart. The wet air ruined the wooded structure of the shrine. When Yusuke put his foot on the first step, his foot went crashing through. "Ahhhhh!"

"Relax!" Sango said.

Kurama and Kuwabara helped Yusuke out. Hiei leaped above the stairs and landed in front of the sliding door. He cautiously slid it open. Inside was of the most gruesome sights any of them had ever seen. . .

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku were still running toward the unknown source of magic. Inuyasha stopped abruptly, causing Miroku and Kagome to run into him. "Hey!" he shouted angrily. Kagome and Miroku mumbled sorries.

"Well, why did you stop?" Miroku asked as he rewrapped Kilala's blakets. Kagome was also doing the same thing.

"The trail of magic seems like it's fading."

"So, what? It's only been one path for a long time!" Shippo said after he freed his mouth.

"True, but we have no idea what happened," Kagome intervined before Inuyasha had time to hit the young fox demon.

"Let's go," Inuyasha said and dashed off again.

"At least the snow isn't as deep," sighed Miroku.

"Here we go again," grumbled Kagome.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Behind the sliding door was a very gruesome sight. It was something only a bloodthirsty, violent loving demon could do. There was blood everywhere. The walls were covered with it and so was the floor. In the middle of the small shrine was, what looked like, the real guardian cut in half. Obviously, the guardian was dead. It was a woman.

Hiei leaped back in front of them. "Well, we know for certain the real guardian isn't responsible."

"Why?" Kuwabara asked.

"Because I found her cut in half. It's hard through to live that," Hiei said.

"That means there really was a confined demon and it killed the real guardian," Sango said, summing up what happened so far.

"But where is the real question," said Kurama.

"Wait. . .Aren't guardians immortal?" asked Yusuke, ruining the seriousness of the moment.

"Not all guardians are. They usually have a similar life span to that of a demon. Only the most powerful types of guardians are immortal," Kurama paused, "Apparently, this one wasn't."

"Oh."

The fog had completely disappeared while they were distracted with the death of the guardian. Kurama looked past the shrine and there was a small forest. Something moved. It was moving fast. Everyone had heard it. It was jumping through trees and bushes. There was slight noise, again.

Whatever it was, it was either trying to escape or it was trying to find an opening to attack. Sango readied her Hirakostu. Hiei drew his sword and Kurama reached into his hair for his rose. Yusuke and Kuwabara got into a fighting stance. The noise was now focused on the bush in front of them. The leaves were rustling.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kagome had already entered the room with the magic spells. They stared in awe at the entire floor covered with markings, magic. "What did this?" Kagome asked.

"I've read about this. The big one is a sealing spell," Miroku explained.

"A sealing spell? But what was it supposed to seal?" Shippo curiously asked, wriggling out of the blanket.

"No idea," Miroku stated.

"Who cares what it sealed! I'll beat it either way!" announced Inuyasha.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

A demon was standing in front of Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Sango. The demon had long, silvery hair put up in a ponytail. He was also wearing a dark blue fighting outfit. There were blotches of blood on his clothes. They deduced that it was from when he killed the guardian. As he stepped forward, they noticed that he was not very tall. In fact, he was shorter than Yusuke.

He also had two swords. He was holding one and it had dried spots of blood. His face was cold and emotionless. He smirked at them, revealing a fang. His claws gripped the sword's hilt and he stepped forward. "256 years trapped in that cave," he paused, "As soon as I find the person that released me, I'm going to thank them. . . And then kill them." He began to chuckle.

"Well, he's a psycho," Yusuke said loud enough for his companions to hear.

"You said it," replied Kuwabara.

The demon looked at the strange fighters in front of him. The girl looked like something he had seen before. What was her kind called again? Oh, yes, a demon slayer. He cocked his brow. She has to die. Next was the tall, orange-haired boy. He seems to be the comical one in the group. He hated funny. Death to him, too. Oh, what the hell, death to them all!

Yusuke was cracking his knuckles, he was ready to beat this guy into a pulp. As he was stepping forward, Kurama stopped him. "You've already fought, give someone else a chance," he said and walked up to the demon.

Both the demon and Kurama walked in circles, glaring at each other. None of them attacked. They were too busy assessing each other. _Looks human, but doesn't seem like one. I better watch him carefully, _the demon thought.

"The demon is powerful, but I hardly think he stands a chance against Kurama," Hiei said.

"You better be right," Yusuke said as his spirits slightly rose.

"Then again, the demon might have some hidden powers we're not aware of," Hiei said, lowering Yusuke's spirits.

"Answer my question first before we begin," Kurama started, "Did you curse the villagers."

"Yes, I enjoyed it so much," he said evilly, "All I had to do was steal a little trinket from the guardian. It was quite simple really. She was so naive."

Kurama glared at him.

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku came running into the scene. Shippo bounced off Kagome's shoulder onto the ground. Kilala escaped Miroku's grip and jumped to Sango. Kilala purred and nuzzled Sango.

"What are you all doing here? I thought you all stayed back," asked Sango, petting Kilala.

"Well, you were taking too long so we decided to come look for you," Kagome said.

"Who's the demon?" Inuyasha asked, looking intently at the Kurama and the demon.

"He's the demon that was sealed off. He pretty much wants to kill us all," Kuwabara explained.

"Wow, Kurama's gonna fight. I can't wait to see what he can do," Shippo said excitedly.

"Some of his fights end up being really bloody," Kuwabara said, "Like that dude with the bombs."  
"Karasu? I remember that one, Kurama almost died from blood loss," Yusuke said.

"Karasu was a skilled fighter and had invisible bombs on his side," Hiei added, seeing the confusion on the others faces.

"Invisible bombs? No wonder he suffered from blood loss," Kagome muttered.

Kurama reached for the rose in his hair, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed it into his famous Rose Whip and attacked the demon. He didn't even see it coming and received a wound on his chest. The demon chuckled. "You'll pay dearly for that mistake." Kurama didn't reply.

The demon unseathed his second sword. He started to do some swift movements with his two swords. The movements were incredibly fast and none of it was used for attacking. It was hypnotic. _I must be careful. I have no idea what he's planning with this nonsense, _Kurama thought. Suddenly, the demon split into two, and then into four, and so on until it there were sixteen. Each one was doing the same movement in unison.

Then, all sixteen of the demons charged toward Kurama. He gripped his whip and began attacking at the first one. He jumped out of the way, which revealed a second one that attacked Kurama. He couldn't dodge. He was too close. Kurama received a wound on his chest, much like the one he had given to the demon earlier.

The sixteen demons were standing, smirking. "I told you would pay."

"That was a dirty trick!" Yusuke shouted.

"Since when do our enemies play by the rules, Detective?" Hiei said smugly.

"Hold on, I think I can figure it out," Kuwabara said. Yusuke was also trying to figure it out.

"It was a rhetorical question you idiots," Hiei angrily said. Both of them mouthed out the word 'oh' silently.

They charged at Kurama again. "That trick again?" Kurama questioned.

"You wish." Instead of attacking, they kept circling around the fox demon. They were obviously trying to confuse him, but Kurama was smart enough to see through his trick. He carefully examined the circling demons. _There_, he thought. His rose whip made contact and sent him flying. The other copies disappeared as well.

"Alright! He did it!" Shippo celebrated.

"Maybe we can get out of here sooner than I thought," Kagome said.

"Let's hope that's the case," said Miroku.

"Geez, you're just like Hiei, ruining the mood," Kuwabara said.

"I can't help that I'm stating the truth," Miroku replied.

The demon had done a frontal attack with his swords, but Kurama gracefully moved out of the way. But, as Kurama was dodging, the demon played a dirty trick on him. He punched Kurama were his wound was and it caused him to step back in pain. The demon took this opportunity to cause more damage to him. He punched and kicked and slashed him again on his current wound. The demon jumped back to let Kurama get up from the ground.

Kurama scraped his fingernails on the ground as he was trying to get up. He was glaring constantly at the cheating demon. Some of the most blood thirsty demons have some sort of honor, even if it does involve slashing an opponent into pieces. But that wasn't the point! The point was that the demon had gotten Kurama angry and no one wants to do that. His eyes had bits of gold and his red hair had silver streaks.

Yusuke and company were staring at Kurama. "Hiei, is it me or his he transforming?" Yusuke asked, his eyes never leaving the half transformed fox.

"Yes," the fire demon replied.

"But doesn't he need to take that potion thing?" asked Kuwabara.

"Yes, yes, he does," Hiei said.

"But how?" But no one answered that.

"Whoa, we'll see how Kurama really looks like," Shippo commented.

The demon was taken back. _I knew something was strange about him_, he thought, _I need to be more careful. _

Kurama's claws grew out. His silver tail and ears came out gradually. His hair was now completely silver and he was taller. He had transformed into Youko Kurama. He was wearing his usual white outfit that consisted of the white sleeveless shirt and the white pants.

Yusuke looked at Inuyasha and the others and they were in shock. Their mouths were literally hanging open. He chuckled at the sight. _Maybe a fly will go into on of their mouths, _he thought and laughed.  
"What are you laughing at?" Kuwabara asked.

"Nothing," he replied with a fake innocent grin.

Kurama narrowed his eyes and smirked. "And now you die, you pathetic excuse for a demon," the silver fox said in the deadliest tone anyone of them had ever heard, except for maybe when Hiei threatens Kuwabara when he's around Yukina of course.

The demon stood his ground as Youko charged at him. He slashed him with his whip with lightening fast speed. The demon was covered in blood now.

"It was a mistake making me angry," Youko growled.

"Mistake my ass," the demon replied. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He put his swords away and formed an energy ball in his hands. It was about the size of an apple but it suddenly tripled in size. He shot the ball of energy toward Youko, but a large green plant shot out and absorbed the attack. The plant was destroyed from the power of the attack, but about ten more of them sprang up.

Yusuke's, Kuwabara's, and Hiei's eyes widened. "We need to get back to the cave," Yusuke said, "Now."

"Why?" Inuaysha asked.

"Those are his death plants. They eat anything and everything, except for Youko Kurama himself," Hiei explained. Kuwabara was already running towards the cave. Kagome scooped up Shippo and began running as well. Inuyasha and Yusuke stayed behind the rest to make sure the death plants wouldn't get them.

They watched from the mouth of the cave. The mouth of the plants were opened wide with saliva dripping everywhere. The plants were trying to eat the demon. The mouth of the plants were crashing into the ground, picking up dirt, but it wouldn't give up. It wanted to eat the demon. Youko was laughing. "You'll never escape my death plants! Their hunger has gotten the best of them!"

"I didn't know plants could be so violent," Sango said.

"Believe it. Kurama can turn any plant into a deadly weapon," said Yusuke.

The demon was frantically trying to get away from the plants, but where ever he turned, there was another one with its mouth open, ready to scoop him up. He drew one of his swords and stuck it through the roof of one of mouths. _One down, nine more to go_, he thought, D_amn, I could blast them all away, but I used most all of my energy for that stupid energy ball and that copy trick._ While he was preoccupied with his thoughts, one of the plants snuck up behind him and clamped its mouth shut, with him in there. The plant was about to swallow, but its mouth was opening. The demon slashed the rest of its mouth.

"I can still use brute strength," he said and jumped down. His clothes were torn and covered in blood.

"You're the second person who escaped my plants," Youko said in a disgusted voice, "I'll make sure you suffer. You cannot escape the inevitable."

"We shall see."

More plants lunged toward the enemy demon, but this time he took out his remaining sword and swiftly ran towards the plants. He managed to dodge the mouths and cut all the plants from the stems. They came crashing down. The demon grinned truimphantly.

"You shouldn't be so happy, you're weak," Youko said and smirked, showing his fangs.

"What about you? I bet that plant trick wasted your energy as well."

The silver fox took out another rose from his hair. He twirled the the rose, causing all the petals to fall off. But the petals did not fall on the ground, instead it floated in the air.

"What kind of trick is this?" asked the demon.

"Why don't you attack and find out."

"I will." As soon as the demon moved, he was cut. "What? I didn't see you move!" Youko smirked. The demon moved again and was cut. His eyes widened. "The rose petals."  
"Took you long enough, but you cannot win a fight by just standing around."

The demon narrowed his eyes. Youko was right. Unless, he moved, he would lose. Then, an idea struck, he wouldn't move, much. He summoned an energy ball made from the energy he gathered from after using it the last time. He shot it and was able to destroy all the rose petals.

"You may have destroyed the petals, but you have no energy left. You will die." The demon realized that Youko was right, again. He sensed the energy emitting from the fox demon and he still had quite a bit to spare. It was hopeless. There was no way to defeat him. Youko ran and slashed the demon into small pieces with his claws. He shook the blood from his hand. He hated killing the old fashioned way, but at the state the demon was in, it would be a crime to use his plants to defeat him.

"No one underestimates me and lives," Youko Kurama said.

Youko slowly transformed back into the red head known as Shuichi, or Kurama by a select few. _That took a lot out of me. More than I expected, but was it just a fluke this time or can I really transform on will now? _Kurama thought.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Naraku, don't you want to see what is happening at the cave?" Kagura asked. Kagura had red eyes and was holding a fan to her face. Her hair was up in a bun. The pale child known as Kanna was standing next to her in the darkness.

Naraku thought for a second and replied, "I may have released the demon, but I don't care if he defeats them or not. I just needed to take them off my trail for awhile."

"But what if he won?"

"That won't happen. He cannot stand up against all of them."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

They had traveled back to the village and bandaged Kurama's wound. Everyone afflicted with a weather problem was cured. Probably, as soon as the demon died, the little storms and blizzards also disappeared. Everyone thanked them and the villagers also took the news very hard. Their beloved guardian was killed and it was a demon that did this to them. The village headman came up to them and said, "You may come and visit whenever you wish. You will always have a place here."

"Thank you, and we wish you the best of luck adjusting to a life without your guardian," Miroku said.

They bid their final good-byes and continued on with their journey to complete the Shikon Jewel and defeat Naraku once and for all.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I think I'm getting better with fight scenes. The demon slayers and the sealing spells was all my idea that I made up. Same with the whole guardian life span. Also, I think only one of the enemies Yusuke and the others faced played fair, not sure. Oh, yeah, I read off this site that said Kurama is able to transform when he's angry enough later on in the show, so I used that information for the transformation here.

This is the longest chapter I've made so far. I hope you all like it, and please tell me if this fight scene was good. Here are the replies:

**JoannaKuwabara: **Don't worry, all your questions will be answered, sooner or later.

**sleep all day rock all night:** So did you like this one?

**ficfan3484: **Feel free to ask anything else.

**Time and Fate: **Yeah, it was.

**ilikewhitetigers: **Thanks.

**Rei Minamino: **lol

**Hirina: **You'll get the 100 reviews in a couple more chapters and bring on the random questions! By the way, I've never really tried Dr. Pepper, is it good?

**Prismdragon**: Thank you! I'm glad you think I kept the characters in character. I've watched both shows enough time to be able to repeat some quotes from heart.

**bill: **Oh, that's right. I forgot all about that, but technically, the sword was made from his father's fang and it was fixed by Inuyasha's fang. I kinda figured it was mostly still the father's fang. That was my take on things.

**gizmostar: **Thanks!

**shadowyoukokitsune:** Yeah.


	18. Bad Day

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I wanna thank sleep allnight rock all day, JoannaKuwabara, Easy-Company-506101, Twilight Elf-Maiden, ficfan3484, Time and Fate, Hirina, Rei Minamino, SlavetoDBZ, faerie of the moon, Prismdragon ( ), shadowyoukokitsune, gizmostar for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **-sighs- Why do I even bother?

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 18: Bad Day**

"When multiplying binomials, it is important to rememeber the FOIL method," the teacher said and wrote 'FOIL' on the blackboard, "Now, FOIL, stands for 'First, Outer, Inner, Last. That is the order in which the numbers are to be multiplied, take..." The teacher droned on and on.

It was a very boring and dull day at Sarayashiki Junior High and although Keiko Yukimura is a top student, she wasn't feeling her normal self. She sighed. _School isn't the same without Yusuke, even though he only comes once every ten days,_ she thought. She grudgingly took notes on today's algebra lesson about multiplying binomials. She sighed again.

_DIIIIING. DIIIIING._

The students immediately stood up. "Fire!" a person from the back of the class shouted. Even the teacher was surprised. Usually the faculty was aware of a fire drill. "Remember students! Form an orderly line and head to the parking lot across the street," the teacher said over the panic stricken students.

As the students rushed their way toward the door, and a couple really frightened students actually jumped out the window, but they didn't get badly hurt, it was the bottom floor, Keiko found herself thinking about something really silly. _And Yusuke always says nothing exciting happens at school,_ she thought, _Wait, what's wrong with me? I'm supposed to be get out as quickly as possible and I found myself thinking of something so silly... I really do miss him..._

Everyone had gotten out of the building safely and all the teachers were taking roll. Keiko was leaning on the chainlink fence, looking at the school. It was only a small part of the school that had caught on fire and the firefighters seemed like they had it under the control, but the damage done to the school was extensive. A professional had to check the structure of the building and there was the fact that the part of the school that caught on fire had to be rebuild. Keiko was thinking that school could possibly be closed for a month to two months.

"Hey," someone said, behind Keiko. She was startled and turned around.

"Oh, Shizuru, it's you. You scared me," she said relieved.

"Sorry, I just came by to see if you're okay. They have this on the news live."

"I guess they would. This is the third fire this past week," Keiko said and stared at the fire, "Everyone thinks it's arson, but who would want to burn a school down?"

"Some kid who has problems, that's who," Shizuru replied. She took out a lighter and a cigarette. She lit it and puffed out some smoke.

"I really don't think you should smoke this close to a fire."

"You're so proper," she dropped the cigarette on the ground and put it out with her foot, "But that's what I like about you."

"Attention students! You are free to go home! We urge you to go straight home! Your parents will be contacted about the school's condition!" Mr Takanaka, the school principal shouted over the bullhorn.

"I'll walk you home, kiddo," said Shizuru.  
"Thanks."

Their walk towards the Yukimura Cafe was mostly done in silence. There was the occasional stops at an electronic store with the television on with the news. The fire at Sarayashiki Junior High was all over the news.

"Keiko, I was thinking, since you school won't be open for awhile, why don't we go to Tokyo."

"Tokyo? Why?"

"To see how my idiotic brother is doing," she said, "And I'm sure you miss Yusuke a lot. It's written all over your face." She chuckled.  
"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing, tell your parents and we'll go as soon as possible."

Shizuru was sitting at one of the tables at the Cafe, while Keiko was trying to persuade her parents to let her go to Tokyo. Shizuru was fiddling with the straw in her drink. She heard Keiko's parents protesting to everything Keiko said. Finally, after a few more silent moments, Keiko came out with a smile on her face. "I can go."

The next day...

Shizuru came by the cafe along with Yukina. Keiko was waiting for her with her suitcase. She ran to Yukina and Shizuru.

"Yukina, I didn't know you were coming, too."

"Well, Shizuru came by last night and convinced me, besides, it was a bit lonely at the the temple," Yukina said.

"Oh, and school is closed for about two months, so I need to get back before then," Keiko added.

A taxi pulled up in front of the cafe. "Come on, I called a taxi to take us to the airport," Shizuru said, "We're going to be traveling in style." She flashed the first class plane tickets. The taxi driver got out and put all their suitcases into the trunk.

Their plane ride to Tokyo was boring, but it was a wonderful experience for Yukina, considering she has never been in a plane. She sat next to the window and enjoyed the beautiful view of the sky. There was also a very crack on the window that caused the cold air to come inside, well, that was the excuse Shizuru made up. (Yukina was causing the air to be just a little colder.) The movie was very boring. It was about a cabbage farmer. Shizuru's eye was twitching through out the entire movie, even though she took her headphones off so the movie was silent. The food was, for one thing, better for them than it was for the rest of passengers, but airplane food isn't exactly the best food there is. One other fact about this plane ride cannot be forgotten. An overweight man sat next to Shizuru. He was asleep for most of the ride, but when it was lunch time, he did not have the best manners. And, whenever he was asleep, his head kept sliding onto her shoulder and she kept pushing it off. In fact, she made constant trips to the restroom to escape from him. _Hm, maybe if he was good looking, I wouldn't mind, _she had thought as she made her way back to her seat.

The plane ride wasn't very long, but it seemed like an enternity to Shizuru. As soon as they were allowed to leave, she was first to get out, with Keiko and Yukina close behind her. They sat in another taxi.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

"Um," Shizuru and Keiko said in unison.

"To here," Yukina said and gave the man a piece of paper.

"What's that?" Keiko whispered.

"The address to where Master Genkai is staying," Yukina replied, "She gave it to me the night before they left." Keiko and Shizuru sweat dropped.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Shizuru whispered.

"You never bothered to ask, and besides, I just remembered." More sweat drops.

The taxi took them to Genkai's new house. It didn't take very long. Shizuru payed him, and he was kind enough to take their suitcases out of the trunk. They went up the stairs and saw an elderly man knocking frantically at the front door.

"Genkai, darling, please open up," he said. The group of girls sweat dropped. They looked up and saw a window open on the second floor. A pot came tumbling down and almost hit the man.

"Oh, I see, you're playing hard to get," he said, "I'll come again soon!" He passed by the girls, gave them a quick hello and climbed up the stairs of the place across the street.

"That was interesting," Keiko commented. The other two nodded. Shizuru knocked on the door, while Yukina picked up the pot. After a few moments, they saw someone looking at through the blinds. The person was quickly gone and opened the door.  
"Hello, girls, what are you doing here?" Genkai asked.  
"We came to see the idiots," said Shizuru.  
"Come in."

They walked in. They were in the living room. It had a television set, a glass top table, along with a leather sofa. The walls were painted a nice cream color. The room had hard wood flooring.  
"It's so nice here," Keiko said.

"So, where are the idiots?" asked Shizuru.  
"In the feudal era," replied Genkai.

"The what?" Keiko nearly screamed.

After Genkai had explained everything that had happened so far, Keiko calmed down, slightly.

"Of all the stupid and idiotic things, he had to go 500 years in the past!" Keiko shouted angrily, "He's missing so much school! One day he'll come crawling back saying, 'Oh, Keiko, you were right, school is important.'"

"Relax, kiddo, he's making the world a safer- Oh, I can't say it. It's too funny," Genkai said, "By the way, where's Puu?" Keiko rushed immediately to open her purse and began throwing everything out. Then, a blue fuzzball came out with black hair. It had long ears and a beak. It gasped for air.

"Oops, you won't tell Yusuke, will you?" Keiko asked innocently.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

In the feudal era, Yusuke was gasping for air as well. It felt like he was cut off from oxygen for the past hour or so.

"You okay, man?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yeah, I think." He was rubbing his neck.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

In Spirit World, the great Lord Koenma was drumming his fingers on his desk. "A day late," he kept saying over and over again.

"Please, sir, I'm sure he has a perfect excuse," Ayame said. _When he gets here, I'm giving him a piece of my mind, _she thought bitterly.

"Exactly, maybe there's family crisis he has to take care of," said Botan. _Ooh, he's gonna get it when he gets back, _she thought angrily.

"That ogre is in a heap of trouble when I get my hands on him," they all muttered in unison. They looked up at each other and laughed nervously, in unison.

"Okay, this is creepy, Ayame and I should get out," Botan said. She grabbed Ayame by her arm and dragged her out. They walked towards the main gate and decided to give George a nice little surprise.

"No one puts our jobs in danger and gets away with it," Ayame said angrily. They were both holding their oars, ready to hit the next thing that moves. George had almost cost them their jobs and he was _not _getting away with it.

The large doors opened. A gust of wind came rushed in and made their hair messy. Then someone dressed in a oversized, brown drench coat with a matching hat came inside. His hat was covering his eyes. He quietly closed the doors behind him and walked forward through the hallway, but was stopped by the crossing of two oars. He lifted his hat slightly away from his face. He saw the two angry women. He tried backing away, but it was too late. Botan hit very hard on the head while Ayame aimed for his stomach. They kept hitting him until he was black and blue all over.

"I deserved that," George said, trying to straightened his hat out, "Where is Lord Koenma?"

"His office, planning your punishment," Ayame said calmly.

"I see... I'm getting outta here!" He tried to rush to the doors, but was stopped, again. Botan and Ayame decided it was best to hold their oars to his back and lead him to Koenma's office.

As George was faced by doom either way, he decided to go along with it, hoping someone brave enough came to his rescue. They entered the busiest part of Spirit World. Ogres were rushing to and fro with stacks of files and shouting incoherent things. As soon as the group of three entered, they stopped in their tracks. They looked at George with sorrow in their eyes, which will soon change to regret because none of them were brave enough to help him. They watched Botan and Ayame jab their oars in his back to quicken his pace. When George entered the dreaded office, Ayame gave them all a glare which meant 'get back to work, you lazy slugs.'

They heard yelling come from the office, then it was quiet. Maybe a little too quiet. "You know, I'm starting to feel sorry for him," Botan said. A pair of ogres went inside the office.

"He's going to get spankings," commented Ayame. Both girls practically memorized the warnings of coming punishments. Then the pair of ogres came out, dragging George.

"Not spankings!" he shouted.

"You know, I feel sorry for him too," Ayame said. Koenma stood by the door and glared at Botan and Ayame. He motioned for them to come inside. They looked at each other and gulped. This was definitely not a good day for anyone.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I really don't know what do next. If you have any ideas, please tell me so I can update faster. Oh, and I hope you all remember this, but Yusuke and Puu have a special connection. If Yusuke is in pain, so is Puu. If Puu is cut off from oxygen, so is Yusuke. Please review and no flames please.


	19. The Dead Priestess

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I wanna thank sleep all night rock all day, Hirina, Time and Fate, JoannaKuwabara, Prismdragon ( ), ficfan3484, Easy-Company-506101, hyperactivebluechipmunk ( ), Everqueen, gizmostar, Rei Minamino, shadowyoukokitsune for reviewing.

**Disclaimer:** I'm just gonna make myself depressed again.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 19: The Dead Priestess**

Botan was the last to come out of Koenma's office. Her punishment was to stay in the feudal era with Yusuke and the others until the mission was completed. She sighed. Ayame had a different punishment. She had to help George scrub the floors of Spirit World with a toothbrush. (Although, George did still receive his spankings.) Botan had gotten a lighter punishment, probably because she was Yusuke's assistant. She mounted her oar and flew through the skies to the well. She immediately went down the well, (not even bothering to visit Genkai), found Kaede, asked her where they went, and tried to find them before a demon showed up to attack her.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Yusuke, are you sure you're alright? You were gasping for air for about an hour," Kagome said worriedly.  
"Relax, I'm perfectly fine," Yusuke said dismissing the topic, until he gasped for air again and looked up suddenly with a big grin. "Gotcha!" Kagome hit him on the head.

Miroku leaned towards Yusuke and whispered, "Let me guess, you weren't gasping for air. You were looking for some mouth-to-mouth, weren't you?" He moved his brow.

"You're sick, and I _did _need air, okay," Yusuke whispered menacingly.

"Sure you did," he said sarcastically, placing his hands into the long sleeves of his clothing. Yusuke shook his head. Miroku was a full blown pervert!

"Can we go now! He's breathing," Inuyasha shouted.  
"Are you able to walk?" Kurama asked, completely ignoring Inuyasha. He nodded.

They had set up camp when Yusuke's breathing became labored. Everyone was worried about him. After all, Yusuke might have gotten a rare virus that causes someone to stop breathing, but it was in fact Keiko's fault. She had put Puu in her purse where the poor thing was hardly breathing. Sometimes a person forgets that Puu is not a stuffed animal since that is said to everyone that asks. The important thing was she realized sooner than later, even though it took her awhile.

Anyway, everyone was traveling in a forest. _It's always a forest, _Yusuke thought bitterly. It was a dull day, except for Yusuke's incident of course. There were no demon attacks, no thieves, no other travelers, and no village as of yet. Kuwabara yawned loudly. Everyone looked at him. "What?" he said lazily. They continued on walking in an unknown direction.

It was quiet, maybe a lttle too quiet. Kurama sensed something in front of them. Then, there was a bloodcurdling scream. It was a woman. Inuyasha gripped his sword and warned Kagome to stay back. He ran off to the direction of the scream, followed by Miroku, Yusuke, and Kuwabara. Kurama and Hiei stayed back in case more demons come to attack Kagome and Sango, besides, four fighters are more than enough to defeat the demon Kurama sensed. The demon was not very strong.

The source of the scream was a young woman who was on the ground, trying to protect herself from a demon. Inuyasha leaped into action, ready to claw the demon in half. The demon did not have time to dodge and was killed. Inuyasha shook the demon blood off his hand. Miroku was kneeling down next to woman and his hand had a mind of its own. Luckily, Kuwabara was there to stop him. Miroku gave him a look that meant 'it's not my fault' and rubbed his hand.

"Thank you so much," the woman said gratefully.  
"No problem," said Yusuke.

"What happened though?" asked Kuwabara.

"Well, I was collecting medicinal herbs for Lady Kikyo when a demon attaked," she replied. They noticed the basket she was using for the herbs. Inuyasha took notice especially.

"Kikyo," he muttered.

"Did you say something, Inuyasha?" Yusuke asked. _He said 'Kikyo.' I'm sure of it, but where did I hear that name before? _he thought.

"No," he replied with an attitude.

"Suit yourself."  
_Oh, Inuyasha, here we go again. Kagome will find out, get mad at him and go home for a week. Why can't he just pick? It's not that hard. I mean, Kagome **is **alive, _Miroku thought deeply and sighed. Sometimes, being a lecher, Miroku comes up with a simple and straight forward response, but if only things were that simple.

"Something wrong?" Kuwabara asked.

"No, nothing's wrong," Miroku said defensively and waved his hands in front of him. _They don't know Kikyo was brought back to life. This will be interesting, _he thought.

"Whatever you say."

"Where is your village?" asked Inuyasha.

"It's just beyond the lake," she said and pointed toward the direction that Inuyasha had killed the demon. "Your welcome to stay at the inn my father owns. It is the least I can do for saving me."  
"Sure, why not. I'd rather not sleep in the dirt tonight anyway," Yusuke said, scratching the back of his head.

"Good, it's decided then," Miroku said, "I'll get the others." He ran back to where Kagome and the others were waiting.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"I hope they come back soon," Kagome said worriedly.

Hiei rolled his eyes and said, "The demon is already dead. No use in worrying." Before Kagome had a chance to retort, they saw Miroku running towards them. He stopped to catch his breath and explained to them what happened with the demon and how they were allowed to stay at an inn for free. But, he skipped the part where Kikyo was mentioned.

They silently walked to the group that was patiently waiting for their return. Miroku and Sango were walking in the back and he whispered to her that Kikyo is there. She looked at Kagome and saw her talking to Kurama and Shippo.

"Should we tell her," Sango whispered.  
"I'm not sure, but I think we should wait, in case there is another priestess with the name of Kikyo."

"That is highly unlikely, but you are right. You never know."

Thanks to Kurama's heightened hearing that was a result of a lifetime of thieving, he heard everything Miroku and Sango were whispering about. (Hiei heard also.) _Hm, Kikyo. When we met them, they were talking about a priestess named Kikyo, but she died fifty years ago. I hope it is not the same person, _Kurama thought.

"Kurama! Earth to Kurama," Kagome said.

"Oh, sorry, I got side tracked there."

"So, anyway..."

"Hello, everyone!" a voice shouted. They turned around and saw Botan wearing her usual pink kimono. Her blue hair really brought out her pink eyes. She skillfully landed near them and her oar disappeared.

"What are you doing here?" Kurama asked politely.

"I'll tell you, but it's a looong story," she said.  
"Enlighten us," Miroku said and got closer to her. His hand was about to reach her bottom until Sango hit him with her boomerang.

"It involves an ogre, a makeover, and the ogre's mother," Botan said and also hit Miroku with her oar.

"You know what, I don't think we should know," Sango said, glaring at Miroku, "We need to hurry and catch up with the others."

They found Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Inuyasha waiting for them with a woman. (The woman introduced herself as Miki.) Inuyasha was very preoccupied. He kept staring in the direction of the lake. He was waiting for a sign of Kikyo's stay at the village. None of them had seen a soul collecter, but there was the fact that she might be hiding them until nightfall. Also, it was not until Kikyo was mentioned that Inuyasha was able to smell the clay that Kikyo was made of. It was very faint, but it was there. He sighed. _I need to see her, _he thought. Inuyasha blinked in surprise from a hand waving in front of his face. "Hurry up, Inuyasha, don't make me say that word," threatened Kagome.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong.

The village was very big. It had many inns and markets, both very large. Carts were drawn by horses and the occasional donkey. People were constantly moving, whether it was for shopping, advertising, or chasing misbehaving children away. There were also people cleaning trash in the streets, and people were extremely pushy also. A large woman came up to them and shoved riceballs into their arms and said, "Free samples from the best restaurant and inn in town. Come and stay!" They laughed nervously and quickly walked away before Hiei had a chance to retaliate after riceball was thrust into his hair. He shook it out and glared at his companions.

"Here we are!" Miki announced. They stopped at a large building. It also seemed to be one of the most busiest. There was an elderly woman advertising, and she was about to do the same to Yusuke and company when Miki stepped in and told her that they were already staying here. Miki led them to a large, burly man and explained the situation. The man smiled and managed to embrace them all into a large group hug. They were all crushed.

"Anyone that saves my little girl is welcome for as long as they want," he said gratefully.

"I guess that means we can stay," Yusuke said.

"Yes, about that, well, we only have one room available. I hope you don't mind," he said and quickly added, "But, you'll be getting the best and biggest room we have, free of charge."

"That's wonderful," commented Miroku. He does not have to fake an exorcism and _everyone _is sharing the same room, which means Sango will be there and so will Botan. He smiled. _What an interesting stay this will be, _he thought.

They were led up a large staircase. There was only one room on the top floor. "We usually save this room for diplomats or anyone willing to pay the extremely steep price, but for you, we can make an exception," said Miki. She slid open the door and there was a large room. In the corner was a pile of thick mats used for sleeping. Blankets and pillows were piled next it as well. A small cat came crawling out of a small closet. The closet door was left ajar. It was a black cat and it crossed their path.

"Oh, Shadow, we told you to stay out of this room," Miki said and scooped up the black cat into her arms. "I hope you don't mind she was in here."

"Of course not," Kagome said.

"Good," she said and turned around to exit the room, but stopped. "If you need any food brought up here, don't hesitate to ask. Oh, and there's a hotspring out back. Say the word and we can get you a private one to use." She left.

"Did you see the way that cat crossed our path?" Kuwabara asked.

"It's only superstition. Besides, I thought you liked cats," Kurama said slyly.

"Of course I do, but it's bad luck."

"Oh, please, you probably broke more mirrors than you can count because of your face," Hiei said dryly.

"Hey!"

"You boys can argue as much as you want after we leave," Botan said.  
"Where are you going?" Miroku asked.  
"We are going to take advantage of that private hotspring," Sango said, "And you better not think of following us."

"Why, I feel horrible that you think I would do something that low," Miroku said, grinning. Sango rolled her eyes. Kagome, Botan, and Sango went downstairs to find Miki. Miroku waited a minute and followed.

"Lecher," Inuaysha commented, "I'm going to explore if you need me." The half demon left as well.

"I'm gonna go and eat," Yusuke said and Kuwabara also joined him.

"I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me or you won't be sleeping yourself due to the nightmares caused by my angry," Hiei threatened and found himself a nice wall to lean against to sleep.

"I guess that leaves just us, Shippo," Kurama said.  
"Can we continue my training?" the young kit asked hopefully.  
"I was about to suggest the same thing," Kurama said and saw Hiei glaring at them with one eye open. "I think we should leave before Hiei sets the room on fire."

"Good idea." Shippo had also seen the fire demon glaring. Somehow, it was even more intimidating with one eye. Or maybe scary was the word.

Shippo and Kurama had entered into the bustling streets of the village onle to be bombarded by pushy shoppkeepers, inn owners, and some guy trying to convince them to pick up trash. Kurama managed to politely refuse their offers and entered an alleyway with Shippo.

"Why are we here?" Shippo asked.

"Let's just say I found a way to avoid the villagers." He picked up Shippo and leaped up to land on the rooftop on another inn. He began traveling on top of rooftops toward the lake. It was a perfect place to train. After a couple minutes of rooftop travel, which no one noticed, except for any people on the top floor, they reached the outskirts of the village.

There was a small temple, which they had passed on their way to the village the first time. But they did not notice all the children there. There was an elderly man there complaining about the amount of noise and trouble the children cause.

"How Lady Kikyo can control her anger with all of you is baffling," he said. Kurama chose to ignore that comment at the moment. He would ask Shippo later, but the young kit seemed like he did not even hear the man mention Kikyo.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** Hm, I wonder if they did have mouth-to-mouth in the feudal era. If they didn't, let's say Kagome told them about it. Also, I'll be editing some chapters. Nothing drastic will be changed so you don't have to read the revised versions of the chapter. If I do change a lot about a certain chapter, I will inform you. (Oh, the only thing I changed in chapter 18 is correcting a pen name and getting rid of the replies, in case.)

I'm sorry, but there won't be any more replies becaues of some new rule. (I really like replying...) I don't want to get into trouble. Thank you, Everqueen, for the warning. I usually skim the rules so I didn't notice it.


	20. When Hiei Took a Nap

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I wanna thank sleep all night rock all day, Prismdragon ( ), Hirina, Everqueen, JoannaKuwabara, ficfan3484, Time and Fate, shadowyoukokitsune for reviewing. I've reached over 150 reviews! YAY!

**Disclaimer: **_-busy putting an anti-lawyer barrier around her room- _HA! No one can sue me now! _-maniacal laughter with thunder and lightening- _

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 20: When Hiei Took a Nap**

Kurama and Shippo found the lake rather quickly. It was just a little farther from the temple filled with children. The laughter and shouts of the children were drowned out the more trees came into focus. At last, the lake! It was plain. There were not much flowers, but there were a lot of trees.

"Alright, Shippo, let's review from last time," Kurama said.  
"Okay, what should I transform into?"

"First, transform into Inuyasha." Shippo obeyed. After the cloud of smoke disappeared, the Inuyasha look-like stood there. It was a perfect transformation. Next, Shippo transformed into Kagome, Miroku, Kuwabara, Yusuke, Sango, Hiei, and Kurama's demon form. Each one was perfect except for Kurama's demon form. Apparently, Shippo has some trouble with tails. Instead of a long, silver tail, it was his own tail. At that sight, Kurama sweat dropped.

Kurama was about to instruct Shippo on what to do next, until he saw a flash of red in the trees. It was Inuyasha, but where was he going? Was he going to that Kikyo woman?

"Shippo, what can you tell me about Kikyo?"

"Why?"

"I have a feeling that Kikyo is in this village and I want to know if it is the same Kikyo that died fifty years ago," stated Kurama.

"Well, okay. Basically Kikyo did die fifty years ago, but the person that killed her was Naraku. He transformed into Inuyasha and made Kikyo think that he betrayed her. So, she used the last of her strength to seal Inuaysha to a tree and fifty years later Kagome came and freed him. A little while later, some witch kidnapped Kagome and stole Kikyo's ashes. The witch took part of Kagome's soul away and put in a clay body that looks identical to Kikyo. Now, Kikyo is alive with a clay body and uses souls to stay alive."

_I bet Koenma had a field day with this one, _Kurama thought and chuckled at the sight of Koenma finding out about this. _I wonder if he does know? _

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, but that does explain those," Kurama said and pointed to the soul collector weaving in and out of the trees. It was carrying a soul. Shippo looked at it.

"So Kikyo is here," Shippo said, "I have to see this." The young kit ran off, following the soul collector. Kurama followed as well. After all, it won't be very responsible of him to let a young child run into a forest with out the proper training to defend against enemy attacks.

They followed the soul collector into a small clearing, but hid behind the trees and bushes. There was a woman wearing the regular priestess clothing. It was red and white. She was holding a basket, picking herbs. Inuyasha was also there. He had called her name earlier and she had not acknowledged him. He called her name again and finally she turned around and faced him.

The two foxes were hiding and Kurama was masking their scent and energy with a trick he learned as a thief. This way, they would not be found out. They watched silently as Kikyo looked at Inuyasha. Neither of them had said anything after the half demon got her attention.

Kikyo placed her basket onto the ground. "Inuyasha, what are you doing here?" she said in her cold, emotionless voice.

"I came to see you."

"You do realize I don't love you anymore." She stared at him with her emotionless eyes.

"I think you do," Inuyasha said and began walking towards her.  
"Stop," Kikyo said, "Don't come any closer. We have nothing to discuss."  
"That may be true, but I still care about you. I would never do anything to harm you," Inuyasha said. She said nothing, but she did seem weak.

Kurama and Shippo were watching with great interest. Although, Kurama thought it was a little wrong to spy on their conversation, he was greatly intrigued. It was not every day that a person sees another person with a clay body. He looked up and saw another soul collector. It was also carrying a soul. It flew towards the dead priestess and the soul was sucked into her body. Many more soul collectors came. With each soul, Kikyo regained her strength. Without her entire soul back, she would probably still need to collect souls for a long time. _It's amazing how she uses a soul to stay alive. I've only seen instances of demons eating souls, _Kurama thought. Kikyo and Inuyasha continued their discussion.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Botan sighed and sunk lower into the hot, steamy water at the hot spring behind the hotel. Sango and Kagome were letting the soothing, hot water relax their aching bones. Miki's father was standing guard at the only entrance and now they did not have to worry about Miroku spying on them. Miki's father seemed like a trustworthy man, so there was no concern from Botan or Kagome, but Sango was still a bit suspicious.

Botan opened her eyes. The water was so relaxing. She looked up into the sky. It was interesting the way the hot spring was located. A very tall, circular wall surrounded them and they were able to look up into the sky. Also, there was no way Miroku could climb the walls. It was smooth and there was no way to get any footing. It seemed like the perfect hot spring.

Botan kept staring into the sky and saw something odd. It was long and slender. It was also carrying a soul.

"Why is there a soul collector?" she asked. Kagome and Sango looked up.  
"Kikyo," said Kagome sadly.

"Kikyo? That woman caused us so much work back in Spirit World!" Botan stated and stood up quickly to get dressed to find 'that' woman. But before she wrapped the towel around her, she spotted a certain monk spying on them. Somehow, he was able to climb the wall. Botan screamed. From the sudden surprise scream, Miroku was taken back and lost his balance and fell backwards behind the wall. All three girls quickly got dressed. Botan took off on her oar and floated above the wall. There were barrels everywhere. Many of them had broken apart from the fall. Miroku was in the middle of the mess with a dazed look on his face.

"Hmph, that pervert made a tower of barrels," Botan muttered angrily, "Sango was right when she said it was impossible to stop him."

Kagome, Sango, and Botan stormed out, causing Miki's father to jump from the surprise.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"We're going to give a certain monk a piece of our minds," Sango said calmly, clenching her fist. They quickly found Miroku in an alleyway, still dazed. He quickly recovered and stood up. He waved his hands in front of him and tried to explain.  
"Ladies, ladies, ladies. I meant no harm, it's just that I saw an intruder enter."

"Yeah, right," Sango said and cracked her knuckles. Kagome was getting ready to slap him and Botan was menacingly hitting her oar onto her palm. Miroku was definitely going to get it now.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Meanwhile, Yusuke and Kuwabara were having an eating contest. There was a mountain of empty bowls behind them. Every time they finished one, they threw it behind them, and asked for more. The cooks were not only getting tired, but also running out of ingredients. The other workers kept taking bowls to wash them and coming back to see what ever was taken was replaced again.

After Kuwabara ate the last bit of food in the bowl in his hand, he burped loudly.

"Excuse me," he said.

"Hahaha, that was a good one, bet I can do louder," Yusuke said and burped. It was just as loud as Kuwabara's.

"Ha, mine was better and I ate more than you did."

"No way, that was me," Yusuke said.

"You wish, Urameshi."  
"Oh, you wanna start something?"

"Yeah, maybe I do."  
"Well, then let's go outside and settle this thing like men," Yusuke said.

"Please, you're not even a man," Kuwabara retorted.

"Neither are you."  
"Well, let's settle this like we did at home."  
"You're on, ugly," Yusuke said.

"I'm gonna win this time."  
"You mean you're gonna win the record for the most losses against me?" said Yusuke smugly.

"Outside," they said in unison and exited.

The workers sighed and began picking up the empty bowls.

"At least they're not eating anymore," one of them said.

"Oh, be quiet," another said.

While the workers were cleaning the mess that Yusuke and Kuwabara left, the two teenagers were outside and ready to beat each other into a pulp. They gave each their pre-fight grin. Kuwabara sensed something and looked up.

"Uh, Urameshi, you might wanna look at that," he said and pointed upward.

"If you're trying to hit me while I'm not looking, then you're dead."

"Relax, it's against my honor code, remember?"

"Right," Yusuke said and looked up. There was a strange snake like creature flying through the air. It was carrying a strange glowing orb. It was a soul. "That thing has a soul."

"You wanna follow it?" asked Kuwabara.  
"Yeah."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

After, the three girls hit Miroku, (he was black and blue all over), Kagome remembered about Kikyo being at the village somewhere.

"Um, Botan, can I ask you something?" asked Kagome quietly.

"Yes, of course."  
"It's about Kikyo, well, um, can you take me with you to see her?" she asked and quickly added, "I just want to know if Inuyasha is with her."

"Alright," the grim reaper replied. She floated on her oar and motioned to Kagome to sit down next to her.

"I'm going to stay back. You go on ahead," said Sango. She waved good bye as they ascended into the sky and zoomed off. She looked down and saw Miroku was missing. She whipped her head around and saw him crawling away. "Oh, no you don't!"

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

While this was happening, Hiei was still sleeping. A fly was buzzing around his head. His nose twitched. The buzzing was getting louder and faster. It was flying closer to his ear. He shook his head slightly, but the fly refused to go away. Finally, it landed on his nose. He wiggled his nose. It flew off for a couple seconds and landed back on his nose. At this point, he opened his eyes and looked at the fly on his nose. He was glaring, cross eyed, at the fly. He slowly brought his hand up to face length to hit the fly. His hand made contact with his nose very hard. He looked at his hand and saw no fly. His eyes darted around the room, looking for the annoying insect. It was still alive and buzzing around his head. That was one lucky bug. It was able to live just a little longer due to the fact he was sleepy. Anyway, Hiei reached his boiling point.

"You made me mad and now, you are going to pay," he said to the fly. Once it flew in front of him, it burst into flames and its ashes drifted towards the ground. Hiei chuckled. The fly did not stand a chance against the mighty fire demon. He leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and drifted back into slumber with a twisted smile on his face.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Botan and Kagome were flying through the skies and they were over the forest. Botan peered down and saw two people running in the same direction they were flying to. She dived down with Kagome hanging on for dear life. She was not used to the reckless flying Botan did.

"Hang on, just a little longer, Kagome," Botan said to the screaming girl. Eventually, she leveled the oar at shoulder length to Kuwabara and Yusuke.

"Hey, Botan, Kagome," the two boys said in unison.

"Where are you two running to?" Kagome asked, after she got back on the oar.

"We're following that snake thingie with a soul," replied Kuwabara.

"So are we," Botan said, "But, you should stop."

"Why?" asked Yusuke. Suddenly, both he and Kuwabara ran straight into an invisible wall. They backed away for a second and rubbed their foreheads.

"You just ran straight into a barrier," Botan said.

"Yeah, we know," Yusuke said.

Kagome jumped off the oar and walked towards the barrier. She put her hand to it and her face saddened. "Kikyo is there. I know it," Kagome said and turned around with her head down, "Inuyasha is probably there too."  
"Kikyo. You mentioned her when we first met, right?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yeah."  
"But you said she died," added Yusuke.  
"She was brought back to life by a witch. She has a clay body and uses souls to stay with the living," Kagome explained, never taking her eyes off the ground.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Kikyo, I promised I would protect you no matter what and I intend to keep that promise," Inuyasha said.

"Forget it, Inuyasha. As long as Naraku has the heart of Onigumo, he can't hurt me."

"But-"  
"But nothing, there is nothing left to discuss. I'm leaving," the dead priestess said and turned around. She walked away, leaving Inuyasha to stay there, watching her leave.

Shippo and Kurama were still watching and other than them talking, nothing interesting happened. "Man, they only talked," Shippo complained. Inuyasha's ear twitched and he began looking around. Kurama's eyes widened. Inuyasha had heard them. He grabbed Shippo and was ready to run if necessary. Inuyasha sniffed the air and smelled nothing out of the ordinary. A small sigh escaped Kurama's mouth. His little trick worked. He looked up suddenly and saw Inuyasha did not notice his sigh. The dog demon sprinted off in the opposite direction of where Kikyo left.

"Shippo, I think we should go back to the lake and pretend nothing happened," Kurama said.  
"Good idea," the small kit said, "Let's especially not tell Kagome." Kurama nodded. They began sprinting back to the lake.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan were waiting patiently behind the barrier. Botan was flying around on her oar, looking around. She suddenly spotted Kikyo exit the opposite side of the barrier. The barrier evaporated after she left. _Should I? No, I'll leaver her alone, _Botan thought, debating whether or not to talk to Kikyo.

She flew back down and told Kagome and others what she saw.

"Did you see Inuyasha?" asked Kagome.

"No."

"I see."

"Cheer up, Kagome," Kuwabara said.

"Yeah, don't bother yourself over something like that," Yusuke added. Kagome gave them a slight smile.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kurama and Shippo were trying to go back to the lake without being seen. They hid behind a tree and Kurama turned his head to get a peek of any obstacles standing in their way. He saw something with blue hair land on the gound. _Botan is here. Curse my luck, _Kurama thought. He heard other voices. Kagome, Yusuke, and Kuwabara were also there. _I know!_Kurama picked up Shippo. He sprinted off away from them. Then ran to his left. He ran again to the left.

"What's going on? I saw something with a soul," Kurama asked. He was behind the group.

_Oh, I get his plan. He made it look like he was running towards here. He sure is sneaky, _Shippo thought.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Just a false alarm," Botan lied, "That's just the way Spirit World escorted souls to the afterlife." She saw how much it pained Kagome to talk about Kikyo. It was best that no one else knew.

_Botan is a horrible liar, but at least my plan worked, _Kurama thought. "Of course. Whatever you say."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome, Botan, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Shippo walked silently back to the village. They saw Miroku and Sango. He was being dragged away from a group of girls by his ear. They also joined the rest to go back to the inn.

Once inside, Inuyasha came in behind them. "Hey," he said.  
"Hey," Kagome said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong. Inuyasha sensed something was wrong, but he said nothing. They entered their room and saw Hiei was awake. He saw how gloomy and physically hurt in Miroku's case, they were.

"What's wrong with all of you?" the fire demon asked. There was a murmured answer from them all that sounded a lot like "nothing." Hiei left it at that, but he could not stop the feeling that he missed something important while taking his nap. _I'll ask the fox later, _he thought and shrugged the feeling off.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** Sorry it took so long to update. And I know, this chapter was probably not very interesting, but I have officially hit the worst case of writer's block ever! I have no idea when I'm going to update next, but I am planning on them meeting Sesshomaru soon. So if you an idea, feel free to tell me.

Oh, yeah, I can't believe Naraku killed Kikyo! I always thought that Kikyo would go away on her own, but Naraku killed her. A lot of you are going to kill me for saying this, but I never really hated Kikyo. She wasn't my favorite character either, but still. Anyway, please review and no flames please!


	21. Life in the Feudal Era

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** These are the people that reviewed for last chapter: sleep all night rock all day, Time and Fate, Rei Minamino, ficfan3484, Hirina, loveanime18, JoannaKuwabara, SlavetoDBZ, shadowyoukokitsune, hyperactivebluechipmunk, prismdragon, BballAnimeLover89

**Disclaimer: **I own the plot, but not the characters...sadly.

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 21: Life in the Feudal Era**

The blue haired grim reaper sighed. She looked up into the moonless sky. Inuyasha had become human. She could see him sitting on a tree branch with a sour face. She chuckled to herself. At the times Yusuke and the others had gone to the present, there was a moonless night. Maybe that's why Inuyasha didn't bother them very much, or at least that was Kagome's theory.

Botan got up and traveled a few yards away from the campsite. She took out her communicator and opened it. She called Koenma. There was a very annoying sound coming from it. It sounded a lot like dial up internet. She cringed. Oh, if only it had a mute button, but, alas, she had to suffer. After a minute or two, Koenma picked up. He had bags under his eyes. Maybe he was skipping his afternoon naps, she mused. The young ruler pushed a small stack of papers out of his way.

"Hello, Botan, I presume that the mission is going well," he stated.

"Actually, sir, there is no sign of Naraku as of yet. He has disappeared without a trace and our search is becoming futile," she replied, pushing her bangs out of her eyes, "How's everything back in the present?"

"It's going fine. So far, there are no damages in the fabric of time. Just a few small things have changed. Nothing too horrible. But, I urge you to finish this mission as soon as possible," said Koenma.

"We are trying, but Naraku is a champion at playing hide-and-seek," replied Botan with a slight smile. She brought her hand up to her face and did her mimic of a cat. "Meow."

Koenma sweat dropped and smiled awkardly. "I see, is there anything else that you need to report?"

"Well, we met up with the priestess Kikyo about a week ago," Botan said as her tone suddenly became serious.

His brow rose. "Kikyo, you say, by my calculations she died fifty years earlier in that time..." then it dawned on him. "Her spirit, well part of it, was never delivered to Spirit World until many years later. Tell me, what happened?"

"Well, from what I was told, she was reincarnated in the girl named Kagome. Then a witch took part of Kagome's soul and fused it together with a clay doll with the likeness of Kikyo. Now, she wonders around as an undead clay doll, waiting until she can bear to part with the living," Botan summed up.

Koenma gave a great sigh. "You have no idea how much I despise that woman for what she did while she was an undead clay doll. You know she never did tell me why her spirit was so incomplete. . ."

_The young Koenma, if it was possible for him to be any younger, was ecstatic that his father was finally letting him rule for Spirit World. (It was his first day!) He sucked on his pacifier quickly from happiness, but that joy was soon drained from him when a red ogre dropped a big stack of paperwork on his desk. He took out a stamp from his desk drawer and begin stamping the papers he approved of with a look of sadness. _

_The doors to his office opened and the same red ogre came in again. But this time, there was a spirit behind him. It was that of a young priestess, but strangely, she was incomplete. Only her left side had come. _

_"Who are you?" asked Koenma._

_"I am the priestess Kikyo. I guarded the Shikon Jewel at one point in my life," she replied._

_"I see, but why is only half of you here?"_

_"Time is a conundrum," was her only reply._

_"Well, by our records, you should have died over fifty years ago. What took you so long?" _

_"I had some unfinished business," Kikyo replied coolly, "Now, will you please escort me to the afterlife? I've had enough of this."_

_Koenma had his hands folded on his desk as he was reading over a file. "Over here in Spirit World, we have kept a record of the strangest things certain spirits have told us. Many of the female spirits that came from the feudal era claimed that a priestess had, well, soul-napped them and used their energy to stay alive and that they barely managed to escape. They gave us a description of this priestess, and I'm afraid to say that we believe you are that priestess."_

_He stepped off his chair and walked in front of her. Kikyo lowered her head. She wanted to look him in the eye once he made his decision. "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"_

_"I had some unfinished business," she repeated. _

_"So you admit to this heinous crime?"_

_"Yes," Kikyo said with confidence. _

_"I'm afraid to say, but by forcing spirits that wanted to pass on to stay, you will need to stay in hell for the next five centuries. After that, we will relocate you to a much nicer place, but until then, you will pay for your crimes," said Koenma. "Someone will escort you there. And don't try to escape, you will have a much harsher punishment for doing so." He then motioned for her to leave. _

_He slumped himself against the chair. He gave a great sigh and said, "That was the hardest thing I have ever done. I hope I don't have to do that again for a **long **time."_

_"Don't worry, sir, five centuries will pass in the blink of an eye and she will find peace," the ogre said. _

_"You're right, but what I don't get is why she said 'time is a conundrum?'"_

_"Well, you'll need to think of that later; I'm afraid once she decided to pass on, all the souls she was using came with her as well. They are waiting for you outside," the ogre said. _

_The doors opened revealing about twenty or so female spirits awaiting judgement. Koenma's eye twitched. "Can't we just use the decisions we made earlier?" the young ruler asked hopefully. _

_"Nope, once a spirit stays on earth for longer than a period of a week, they will need consent from a higher authority to pass on to the proper place. After all, we have no idea what they did while with the living," explained the ogre. _

_Koenma groaned and slammed his head against the desk. Once his father gave him more power, a few rules were going to be changed. "I hate you, Kikyo," he grumbled. "Ow."_

"Koenma, Koenma, Koooooenma," Botan said, trying to reach out to the young ruler.

"Huh? What?"

"You were spacing out. What were you thinking of?"

"Nothing really. I just figured out the mystery of Kikyo and what she said to me," he replied.

"Oookay, anyway, I must be going. They're probably wondering where I went off to," said Botan and hung up.

Koenma reclined back into his chair. He stared up into the clock. In half an hour, Kikyo's punishment would be over and she will be back in his office for her new placement. He sighed. Kikyo was the very first person he had to pass judgement on. Sadly, she did a horrible crime and had to be punished. The young ruler hated to see people go to hell or to limbo. And the worst of it was, many people commit crimes against the true evil people to avenge loved ones. Those people are forced to suffer as well, but alas, rules are rules.

"George, get me Kikyo's files, she'll be here soon."

"Of course, sir." George bowed and left.

Koenma chuckled, but he was not amused at all. "So she was reincarnated. That makes things even more difficult now." He jumped off his chair. "I need to see Father for some guidance."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Sango, Miroku, and Kagome were very relaxed this moonless night. All the other times, they would worry about attacks, but now that they had more fighters on their side, there was nothing to fear.

The cold night air was blowing. There were no clouds in the sky. The stars were very clear and visible, something a person doesn't see in any more in a city. It was a very calm and peaceful night. But for some it was quiet, too quiet.

Hiei was sitting atop of the highest branch in the tallest tree in the area around the campsite. He was currently glaring at Inuyasha in the sight of his human form. Because of him, they were forced to stop. "Weak, pathetic humans. If we didn't have to team up with them, this mission would have been over by now," he said angrily.

He jumped down from the tree and landed gracefully on the ground. He walked away from the campsite. He wanted to be alone.

"What's up with him?" asked Kagome.

"That's just Hiei being Hiei. He probably can't stand all of us and wants to be alone," replied Yusuke as he placed a pile of firewood on the ground.

"Is he always like that?"

"Yeah, for as long as I've known him, but, hey, we all need to be alone sometime, just some more than others," Yusuke said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I see." Kagome looked at Inuyasha. _He always wants to be alone during his transformations. He never wants help or company. I don't understand him sometimes. We all want to help, but he gets so angry when people learn about his secret, _she thought. Inuyasha caught her looking at him and gave her a look that quite plainly meant what-are-you-looking-at. She turned around and clenched her fist with an anime vein on her head. _Then again, I guess I can understand. He feels like he can't protect us properly when he's human, but why does he have to be so RUDE?_

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei kept walking away from the campsite. If this mission was going to go anywhere, he had to do something about it. He kicked a rock a little too hard and it landed in something that sounded like water. He heard a girl yelp. He sighed. _Great, what have I gotten myself into this time? _he thought.

He trudged along until he reached a river. There was a small girl in tattered clothing. She had black hair and a smile that never seemed to fade. Hiei looked around and saw she was lone. He took a closer look and saw that her clothes were went from the knee down. (There were also some splashes of water on her face from the rock.)

"Who are you?" the girl asked, staring into Hiei's red eyes with her own brown eyes.

"No one that you need to concern yourself with," replied the fire demon.

"Are you a demon?" she asked, and then without waiting for an answer, she continued, "I can tell. You're eyes are red. Humans don't have red eyes."

"How nice of you to notice. . .tell, me why are you alone?"

"Hm? Oh, well, I think Jaken went off to do something."

_Jaken? Probably some relative. . . _he thought.

"Oh, I forgot, my name is Rin," the girl said and held her out for Hiei to shake.

"Hiei." He looked at the girl and then at her hand. He sighed. _I can't believe I'm doing this, but... _Hiei shook hands with the girl. He turned around to leave, but Rin tugged at his arm.

"What now?" he asked with annoyance in his voice.

"Well, it's kinda scary here alone at night. Can you stay with me until Jaken or Lord Sesshomaru come and get me?" Rin pleaded. She looked at Hiei with big, puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, but I will not stay for very long."

"Yay!"

Hiei sat on a nearby boulder, waiting for these two people, scratch that, two demons to show up. Natrurally, Rin talked about them even though Hiei didn't ask. She didn't talk much about them, but he pretty much got the gist of them after the first five or so minutes. Apparently, this Lord Sesshomaru was Lord of the Western Lands, or something like that. Hiei didn't care much for fancy titles. Then there was Jaken. A pet toad?. . .maybe. Hiei shrugged his shoulders and continued waiting.

He watched the girl try to fish, but seeing as it was dark and she didn't seem to be any good, he decided to help. "Give me that," he said and took the wooden spear in Rin's hand. She didn't object. He carefully watched the water's surface. And in a flash, Hiei had plunged the spear into the water and brought it back up. He had caught three fish. Rin's eyes lit up in joy.

In a couple minutes, Rin had come back with firewood, which Hiei lit with a snap of his fingers.

"Wow, that was cool," she commented.

"Yeah, cool. Say, why were you fishing at night?"

"Well, it's hard to tell the poisonous plants from the edible ones in the dark," replied Rin.

"But, isn't it just as hard to fi- oh, nevermind." Hiei just continued watching the fish cook in the fire. He really didn't want to take the time to fathom the mind of a little girl that didn't seem to be more than the age of eight.

"Do you know when this Jaken and Lord Sesshomaru will come?" asked Hiei.

"Um, nope."

"I see. Does that mean I have to stay here the entire night?"

"If that's how long it takes them to show up, then yeah," Rin replied with a smile.

"Joy," Hiei said sarcastically.

The fire crackled in the cold, night air. Rin reached out to grab one ofthe sticks that had a fish. The stick had become too warm and she burnt her finger. She sniffled. She held out her finger and looked as if she were about to cry. Tears were forming in her eyes and were about to roll down her cheeks.

"Let me see that," Hiei said and looked at her finger. "You'll live, just go soak it in the river for a couple minutes. It should help." Rin nodded and did was she was told. Hiei sighed. The last thing he wanted was her to start crying. That would have been an excellent ending to the campfire roast.

As Rin returned back from the river, Hiei tensed up. He grabbed the hilt of his sword. Something was coming.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

A demoness was riding on a giant feather through the skies. She had her hair up in a bun with several feathers as decoration. Her eyes were red as well. She turned to face a young, pale girl. The girl stared back at her with her dark, emotionless eyes.

"Where is the fire demon?" asked the demoness.

"At a river near our current location," the pale girl replied. The mirror she was holding suddenly had an image of Hiei appear on it. He was sitting by a fire with a small girl walking towards him.

"That's the girl that tags along with Sesshomaru."

"This will make things much harder, Kagura," the pale child said as the wind whipped across her face.

"I know, Kanna, I know," sighed Kagura and steered her feather towards Hiei's location.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Jaken, where is Rin?" asked a tall, dog demon. He had markings on his face. He also had long, silver hair and wore armor. He had a long, boa-like tail draped across his shoulder. His narrow, golden eyes seemed to be waiting for the small toad demon to lie.

"Milord, she is getting food," replied Jaken the toad demon. He carried a staff with two faces. He wore simple, brown clothing. His big, bug eyes seemed to beg for mercy if the dog demon were to get angry. His green face was dripping from sweat from the look the dog demon was giving him.

"Then why aren't you with her?" the dog demon asked.

"Well, I seem to recall an errand you asked me to do, Lord Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru glared at him. Jaken bowed so low that his long, nose seemed to touch the ground. "Please forgive me." Sesshomaru ignored him, stepped on him, and began walking away.

"Get Ah and Un and follow me." (Is that the right name for the two headed demon?)

"Of course, milord," replied Jaken while rubbing his back. He grabbed the reins to the green, two headed demon. The demon tried to pull away, but it eventually gave in and followed Jaken. The toad demon turned around to follow Sesshomaru, but he was missing. He sighed. "He never waits; he cares about that little nuisance more than anything else. . ."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei had sensed a strong energy signal coming their way at fast speeds. The energy seemed similar to Inuyasha's, except it was more demonic. Rin had already sat down and began eating, totally oblivious to Hiei and the coming demon. She looked up and saw Hiei's eyes looking around.

"Is something wrong?" asked Rin.

"Nothing that you need to concern youself with," replied Hiei.

There was a rustle in the trees and suddenly Rin cried out, "Lord Sesshomaru! You came back!"

Hiei did not lower his guard. He eyed the dog demon strangely. _Hmph, you're telling me that a demon such as Sesshomaru hangs out with a little girl?. . .go figure, _Hiei thought. He looked up. _I have this odd feeling that something else is coming, but what?"_

Sesshomaru looked at the fire demon sitting next to the fire. "Who are you?"

Hiei didn't answer. He just stood up and began walking away.

"That's Hiei. He's really nice," said Rin, tugging at Sesshomaru's sleeve.

"You must be Sesshomaru. . .took you long enough to get here," said Hiei with his back turned.

"I'm here, Lord Sesshomaru!" cried out a demon with an annoying voice. Hiei winced once he heard him call out. He turned his head slightly to see where that horrid noise that's called a voice was coming from. It was a small green demon with big eyes. Hiei's eye twitched.

_I don't know who's worse, that thing or Kuwabara? _Hiei thought. A small smirk tugged at his lips as he compared the two.

"Jaken, come, we have no more-" But Sesshomaru was cut off by a coming aerial attack.

"Dance of Blades!"

Hiei looked up. There were some sort blades made from wind coming their way. The source of the attack seemed to come from a. . .giant feather? He pulled his sword out and got into his fighting stance. No one pulls a surprise attack on the fire demon and lives.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **I am _very _sorry that I haven't updated sooner. (Actually last night, I thought I could never get into my account for fanfic. Turned out, there was something wrong with my internet, and it's all better now! Yay!) Oh, and if the whole Hiei comparing Jaken and Kuwabara thing seemed like I was bashing Kuwabara, I wasn't. Also, if you remember, I said I would be editing some chapters, well, I extended the fight scene in the 17th chapter.

I want to give a HUGE thanks to **JoannaKuwabara **for the idea about Kikyo in Spirit World. I also want to give a HUGE thanks to **Rei Minamino **for the idea about Rin fishing and someone from Yu Yu Hakusho comes and helps. Without you two, this chapter would not have been possible, literally. So, thanks again. Please review and no flames. . .pretty please with sugar on top.


	22. The Plan

**CrazyDreamerGirl:** I want to thank sleep all night rock all day, Everqueen, JoannaKuwabara, BballAnimeLover89, loveanime18, Mizuki hikari, Hirina, prismdragon, ficfan3484, Rei Minamino, Kiete for reviewing.

**Disclaimer: **One day I will own my own story, but today is not that day. . .

**Note: **_italics _- thoughts or flashbacks

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 22: The Plan**

"Do any of you know where Hiei went?" asked Kurama.

Everyone looked up at the fox from around the campfire. One by one they shook their heads.

"I hope he hasn't gotten himself in too much trouble. Time is a very delicate thing; anything can damage it," said Botan.

"Relax, the pipsqueak is probably trying to find Naraku and is failing miserably," said Kuwabara.

But, Kuwabara didn't know that he was partially correct. Hiei was trying to find Naraku, but apparently, Naraku had found him instead.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei had drawn his sword and quickly dodged the attack. He looked around and saw Sesshomaru had managed to save Rin, but Jaken wasn't as lucky. The toad demon was lying unconscious by a tree.

He looked up and saw that the source of the attack came from the demoness on the giant feather. She was glaring daggars at everyone, especially to Hiei, for dodging her attack. Her energy seemed familiar. Hiei grinned and decided that this would be the perfect time to use the power of his Jagan.

He ripped the bandana from his head revealing a third eye. It glowed violet. Hiei also took the bandages off his arm. Fire swirled around his arm. He grinned and jumped high into air to be level with demoness.

"Fist of the Mortal Flame!"

The attack hit its mark. The giant feather turned to ashes, but the demoness escaped. The ends of her kimono were burnt off. She waved her fan and a cyclone formed. It engulfed Hiei. She was about to throw some daggers into the cyclone, when she was stopped by Sesshomaru. The dog demon held onto her wrists very tightly. His claws were digging into her skin causing drops of blood to fall onto the floor.

Behind them, the cyclone began glowing orange. Flames erupted and aimed for the demoness. Hiei was standing unscathed from the attack. Sesshomaru jumped out of the way just in time, but the demoness wasn's as lucky. She was burned, but she managed to change the direction of the wind so most of the flames did not hit her. It was a risky move that costed a lot of energy, but she survived.

In the confusion of all the flames, she took another feather from her hair and transformed it. She jumped onto it and flew away.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

"Did you guys hear that?" asked Yusuke.

"Yeah, that was one big explosion," commented Miroku.

"I smell smoke too," added Kurama.

Sango grabbed her giant boomerang while Kilala transformed. Inuyasha hopped down from his tree.

"Lady Kagome, Shippo, Botan, _and _Inuyasha," said Miroku, stopping for a second to glance at the glaring half demon, "you four stay here. We will go and check things out."

"Fat chance! I'm coming with you!" shouted Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha, you're human! You need to stay back," scolded Kagome.

"I don't give a rat's ass; I want to go," retorted the half demon.

"Inuyasha, they're right. You cannot transform your sword in the state you're in. It would be wiser if you were to stay here and guard Kagome and Shippo," said Kurama calmly.

Inuyasha glared at the fox demon before saying, "What if it's Naraku?"

"Naraku will most likely attack you first if he knows of the predicament you are in."

"Fine," conceded Inuyasha with his arms crossed and his face away from the group.

"Let's go," said Kuwabara.

With one last look at Inuyasha, they left. Kagome put a comforting hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. Inuyasha turned to look at her. She smiled. "Everything will turn out fine; it's almost daybreak anyway. We'll catch up to them," she murmured.

Inuyasha put his hand on Kagome's. "Thanks." He walked away and sat down at the base of a tree.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei was hot on the pursuit of the wind sorceress. She was flying high in the sky, but there were no clouds to hide her as the sun rose. But, he still was used his Jagan to track her in fear of losing her trail. The fire demon dodged low hanging branches as he followed her. Where ever she was going, it was most likely Naraku's castle.

_"That was Kagura, Naraku's female incarnation," said Sesshomaru._

_"You know this why?" asked Hiei._

_"We've met a couple times."_

_Without a word, Hiei left. _

No wonder her energy signal was so familiar. Even though the only time they actually encountered Naraku was when he was possessing someone, Hiei was still able to sense his energy signal. It was very faint, but it was there. He didn't realize that until they found out he was being possessed.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Yusuke and the others reached the battlefield in a couple minutes with the speeds they were traveling. There were still traces of small fires burning away at the grass. A bit farther from them was Sesshomaru and he was kicking Jaken so he would awake. Rin was sitting down on rock until Jaken woke.

"Sesshomaru, what are you doing here?" asked Miroku.

"Who's that?" whispered Yusuke.

"That's Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's older brother," replied Sango.

"Oh."

"None of your business monk," replied the dog demon.

"It is our business when one of our friends came here," said Yusuke angrily.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "It seems like my younger brother added a couple more humans to his group. How quaint."

"Tell us where our friend went," shouted Kuwabara.

"I can't tell you where this friend of yours went if I don't know what he looks like."

Kurama shushed both Yusuke and Kuwabara before they made Sesshomaru angry. Unlike his brother, Sesshomaru was a full demon and a powerful one. Kurama didn't want to waste any time fighting if it could be prevented.

"He's a little on the short side with black hair that sticks up and red eyes. Have you see him?" asked Kurama.

"He went that way," replied Sesshomaru and pointed towards the path that was most burnt.

"Yup, pipsqueak was here," commented Kuwabara.

"Um, thanks Sesshomaru," said Sango a little unsure as they left. _I never thought I would be thanking him, _she thought.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

The night was fading away. Light was beginning to appear and illuminate the forest. Inuyasha was pacing back and forth, waiting for his transformation. Kagome grabbed her bow and arrows and walked towards the half demon.

"Inuyasha, relax," said Kagome.

Inuyasha grunted in reply.

"Look, just a couple more minutes and we can go," said Kagome, but there was still no answer.

She sighed. There was no talking to him. Shippo jumped up onto her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha is just being is normal stupid self," said Shippo.

"Shippo, you know that's not true," said Botan.

"Sure."

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Hiei had already stopped awhile back. Kagura had entered the barrier and there was no way for him to enter unless Naraku put the barrier down. He gripped the hilt of his sword as he heard the footsteps of a large group of people approaching.

He drew his sword, but stopped dead in his tracks. His sword was pointing at Yusuke's throat. The Spirit Detective gulped.

"Do you mind putting that down," he said, with his finger on the blade, pusing it down.

"Hn," was Hiei's reply as he sheathed his sword.

"So, what are you doing here?" asked Kuwabara.

"I followed Kagura here. She entered the barrier over there. I'm guessing that this is Naraku's castle," replied the fire demon.

"I didn't think that Kagura would slip up that easily," commented Sango.

"She didn't. I'm sure that Naraku ordered her to lead me here. Why else would she be so careless about hiding herself as she fled?"

"So, any ideas on how to break the barrier?" asked Yusuke.

"All barriers have a weak point. Those weak points are usually in a place where it would be less likely for us to break in," said Kurama. He was speaking from his experience as a thief.

"Well, Naraku would obviously think that we would try an attack from the ground," mused Miroku.

"So, we'll attack from the sky," finished Sango.

"Exactly," said Kurama and continued on to explain his plan.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kagome, Botan, and Shippo watched as Inuyasha's body glowed white. He was transforming. His claws grew long and sharp and dog ears sprouted from atop his head. His black hair changed into a silver color. Then, his brown colored eyes shifted to a golden color as fangs grew out.

Kagome jumped onto his back, like always when they had a lot of ground to cover. Shippo held on tight as Inuyasha sprinted. Botan was flying on her oar next to Inuyasha. _Soon, very soon, this mission could be over and we can go back,_ thought Botan

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

Kurama flew high above the barrier on Kilala. The fire cat moved closer to the barrier. _I hope this works, _the fox thought as his plan was put into action.

**- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Wow, it's a miracle. . .I updated. I apologize for the long wait. I had lost inspiration for the story. Hopefully I can get updates out earlier. Oh, and _The Feudal Era Across the Street _celebrated its 1st birthday this past Thursday on the 20th. I can't believe I've been working on this story for so long.


	23. The Mission's End Part I

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 23: The Mission's End Part I**

Kurama and Kilala were floating inches above the barrier. He took a seed from his hair and placed it on the middle of his palm. His energy flowed into the seed, causing vines and demonic flowers to bloom. The vines wrapped around his arm. The blood red flowers lowered themselves onto the barrier.

Kilala watched nervously. The flowers made her anxious. Kurama petted her head, soothingly. The fire cat calmed down a little. They couldn't afford the slightest mistake.

Just as Kurama had suspecting, the barrier was very weak from the very top. The special flowers that were eating away at the barrier were energy suckers. Naraku could supply more of his energy to the barrier, but these flowers never tire from the energy. The more the better.

Now that they had another energy source, instead of Kurama, they grew larger much faster and were hungry for more. A surge of energy crossed through the barrier. It lashed out at Kurama and Kilala. They back away slightly, but the flowers were so large now that they could be yards away and it would still be able to suck energy.

Kurama told Kilala to back away slightly if another surge came. The flowers were now inching their way to rest on the barrier. Kurama let them. They landed on the ground next to the others.

"That's a big flower," commented Sango.

"Watch, it will get bigger," replied Kurama.

It was as if a garden was growing atop the barrier. The vines were inching themselves down to touch the ground. It planted its roots in the ground. The flowers were now different colors.

"The more energy they suck, the petals change color. You see, they are now a bright yellow," explained the red head. "The newer flowers that formed are still a red color. Soon they'll be orange and then yellow like the rest."

Another surge of energy came. It lashed out near the roots. It cut them. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Miroku, and Sango gasped.

"Just watch," said Kurama.

The vines began mending themselves. Only a few flowers perished from the attack, but it made no difference. The plant was still growing at an incredibly fast rate. About three flowers took the place of each flower lost. Cutting them only made it worse.

"That is some plant," said Yusuke.

"It will die soon," said Hiei.

"What?" asked Kuwabara.

"He's right. This type of plant doesn't last very long outside of demon world. The air is much to different for it. It can't adapt for very long. Once it dies, Yusuke will need to use his Spirit Gun to destroy the barrier before it's too late," said Kurama. "Once all the flowers turn pink, that's when we'll strike."

"Won't it suck up my Spirit Gun?" asked Yusuke.

"It only feeds on demon energy. Human energy is nothing to it."

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha, Kagome, Botan, and Shippo stared at the strange sight. It was a giant mass of vines and flowers.

"What the hell is that?" asked Inuyasha as he came to a stop.

"I'm pretty sure Kurama did that," said Botan.

"And what exactly is that?" asked Kagome.

"Seems to be one of his plants, and by the shape it's taking, it looks like it's covering a dome of some sort," replied the grim reaper.

"A dome?" repeated Shippo.

Realization hit Inuyasha. "Naraku's barrier."

Inuyasha went off into a full sprint. Botan began flying at full speed to catch up with the half demon.

**

* * *

**

They watched patiently for the very last flower to turn pink. Then, it changed colors. It was a bright pink. A large cloud of pollen was puffed out by each flower. The wind carried it away.

"Now, Yusuke," said Kurama.

Yusuke nodded and raised his arm. A look of determination appeared as he said, "Spirit Gun!"

A bright blue orb sailed towards it. The vines and flowers immediately disintegrated. Then it hit the barrier. The weakened barrier attempted to stop the attack, but it was useless. The Spirit Gun broke through it and the rest of the barrier came collapsing down.

"That was a piece of cake," commenedt Yusuke.

"Get down!" yelled Sango.

"Huh?" The spirit detective turned around. A horde of demons came flying out. They attacked them.

Sango threw her hirakotsu and Kilala bit threw the masses. Miroku used his staff. (Naraku's insects were mixed in as well.) Kuwabara and Hiei used their swords, while Kurama used his whip, and Yusuke senselessly punched his way through the crowd.

With their combined efforts, the demons were no match for them. A pile of mutilated corpses surrounded them. The air was thick with the smell of blood.

They entered the premises. It was eerily quiet.

"We need a plan," said Miroku.

"I got one, we find Naraku, rip his head off, and grab the jewel," said Yusuke.

Kuwabara hit him.

"Hey!"

"Well, would you look at that. We have company, Kanna."

"That's Kagura," said Hiei, eyes narrowed.

A small girl was next to her. She was very pale, and her hair was white. She had no pupils, and she was carrying a mirror.

"Whoa, who knew there were albino demons," commented Kuwabara.

"I got a plan," whispered Sango.

They leaned in to listen. "Yusuke, Hiei, go find Naraku." Hiei smirked. He like this plan. Yusuke crack his knuckles. This was going to be fun. "Kuwabara, Kurama, take care of these two." They nodded.

"What about you and Miroku?" asked Kuwabara.

"Don't worry, we're going to find Kohaku."

Kuwabara was going to ask who Kohaku was, but Miroku said, "Her brother."

Everyone went their separate ways. Kurama whispered to Kuwabara, "Please don't let your honor code get in the way of this fight."

"Don't worry. I'll pretend they're guys."

Kurama gave him an odd look. "Whatever works for you."

**

* * *

**

**CrazyDreamerGirl: **Thank you all for being so patient. I've been a bad author, haven't I? Sorry! Now that it's summer, hopefully the updates will come faster. Sorry about the short chapter, but it's either that or wait. (Mini note: made up flower)

And I'm sure you can tell by the chapter title that the story is coming to an end. I'm so sad. I love this story! Now, to thank the reviewers:

prismdragon

Everqueen

BballAnimeLover89

JoannaKuwabara

angel611991

hopelessly hopefull

ficfan3484

Killshea Kavani-Oh, and about your review, I'm not sure how I'm going to fit the pairing in. I'll try, but no promises.


	24. The Mission's End Part II

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 24: The Mission's End Part II**

"Inuyasha, why did you stop?" asked Kagome.

"Yeah, if we want to catch up to rest, we can't afford to keep stopping," added Botan.

Shippo's head appeared through Kagome's hair. "What they said," the young kit added.

Inuyasha paid no attention to them. He was busy sniffing the air. "Naraku's barrier has fallen."

Botan flew higher up to see the flower covered dome. It was gone. In its place was a mass of dark aura that sent shivers down her spine. She had never felt such evil before.

"The flowers are gone. That must mean. . ."

She looked down. They had left her behind. "They ditched me," she muttered angrily.

**

* * *

**

Yusuke and Hiei were runnig through the miasma infested halls of Naraku's castle. Yusuke had to use his jacket as a makeshift mask. Hiei also covered his nose and mouth. They randomly opened doors and tore apart walls to find him. A skeleton fell onto Yusuke. He yelped. Hiei quickly destroyed it.

"Someone needs to redecorate," the spirit detective muttered behind his jacket.

Hiei rolled his eyes. He led the way to a whole new hallway in the castle. The miasma was getting stronger. That meant that Naraku was getting closer. He was not in that hall. They crossed through the courtyard that was in the back of the castle. Random skeletons and corpses were piled onto one another. They had one part of the castle left that they did not search.

"It looks like we're in the middle of this entire place," commented Yusuke.

"A fitting place for crazed lunatic," said Hiei. He kicked the door down. A large cloud of miasma descended upon them. They coughed until their eyes watered. Hiei took the incentive to use his sword as a fan. He quickly spun it in a circle to spread the poison out.

"Thanks," said Yusuke.

"Hn."

They entered the room. It looked completely normal, well as normal as possible in a place like that. They searched the walls for any secret passageways. Hiei angrily punched the wall. A large dent formed.

"Come on, he might be on the other side of the castle. You know the side where Sango and-whoa!" Yusuke tripped on the ruined tatami mat. He fell flat on his face.

Hiei sighed, arms crossed. "Get up, detective."

"Yeah, thanks for the help," grumbled Yusuke. He rubbed his ankle, making sure it wasn't broken or twisted. He noticed a patch of brown underneath the mat. "Hey, Hiei, come check this out."

"What is it?"

Yusuke pointed to the brown patch. Hiei slashed the mat up, and they took it off, piece by piece. It was a secret door leading underground. They looked at each other with identical smirks. They heaved it open and peered down into the darkness.

**

* * *

**

"Sango, this useless. We've been through every single room on this side. It's like a maze," complained Miroku.

The demon slayer ignored the monk. "He's here, I just know it," she muttered to herself.

She slid open a door, expecting to see her brother, but instead, she was flung against the wall.

"Sango!" yelled Miroku, running over to her side. Before he even reached her, a tentacle threw him against the wall. He groaned. As he was rubbing his head, he heard a familiar laugh. It was Naraku, and Kohaku was standing right next to him.

Kohaku was holding his sickle to Sango's neck. "No," said Miroku, weakly.

"No what? Would you like to die first, monk?" asked Naraku.

Miroku stood up. Kohaku walked towards him. He had the attention of both of them. He only hoped a miracle would happen, and soon.

**

* * *

**

Kurama jumped out of the way of Kagura's Dance of Blade. He clutched his bleeding arm. It was harmed earlier in the battle. He looked over his shoulder to see Kuwabara charging towards Kanna. He had his Spirit Sword pointed towards the mirror. It hit. Kuwabara laughed truimphantly.

"Did you really think a mirror could save you?" the orange haired teen asked.

"Fool," said Kanna.

"What the hell?" His sword was being sucked into the mirror. The energy was being drained. Kuwabara frowned. "If that's how you want to play, I'll give you something to suck up."

"Don't, Kuwabara, it's useless!" yelled Kurama as he jumped out of the way of another attack.

"You stay out of this, fox boy!"

Kuwabara put more energy into the sword. Kanna watched him waste his energy. It was a futile attempt.

Kuwabara was very determined to destroy the mirror. Kurama tried to help him, but Kagura kept getting in the way.

"You really should pay attention to your own fight," said Kagura. "Dance of the Dead!"

The numerous corpses and skeletons that Hiei and Yusuke encountered earlier sauntered towards the red head. He summoned his rose whip. He slashed his way through the zombie army to get to Kagura.

_If I can destroy that fan of hers, she won't be able to attack at all, _he thought.

Kuwabara watched helplessly as Kurama fought the zombies. He was too busy with the energy sucking girl to help. He poured more energy into his sword, hoping the mirror would become too full and crack.

"There is no point. You are just wasting your energy," said Kanna.

Kuwabara ignored her. Suddenly, a cracking noise penetrated the air. Even Kagura and Kurama stopped to see what happened. The orange haired teen smirked.

**

* * *

**

"We're almost there!" yelled Inuyasha.

The half demon ran onwards, while Botan slowed down. "I swore I saw something. Oh, well, it was probably my imagination." She shrugged it off and flew off.

A streak of sliver appeared through the greenery.

When Botan finally caught up with Inuyasha, he had already stopped. They were staring at the fight going on between the incarnations and Kurama and Kuwabara.

"He did it," said Kagome.

Kuwabara had broken through the mirror. The glass came tumbling down. While Kagura was preoccupied, Kurama used his whip to get her fan. He slashed it. The zombies fell to the ground.

"You really should pay attention to your own fight," said Kurama, repeating what Kagura said earlier.

She glared at him. She quickly grabbed a feather from her air. But before she could transform it, vines shot up from the ground, binding both Kanna and Kagura. She said every curse word that came to mind to Kurama.

"Are you going to kill them?" asked Inuyasha, inspecting the vine covered incarnations. Kagura spat at him, but he quickly got out of the way.

"There's no point. She was only acting on Naraku's orders," said Kurama as his whip went back into a rose.

"Where are the others?" asked Kagome.

"Yusuke and Hiei went after Naraku, and Sango and Miroku went to find Kohaku," said Kurama.

With that said, Inuyasha ran off into the castle to find Naraku. Kagome ran after him. Kuwabara went to help Miroku and Sango.

"Here, let me help you with that," said Botan, referring to Kurama's bleeding arm.

Her healing powers cured his cut. "You and Shippo stay out here. It's too dangerous."

"Where are you going?" asked Shippo.

"I'm going to help the others defeat Naraku," replied Kurama.

"Be careful," said Botan.

"I hope you die!" yelled Kagura.

Shippo and Botan glared at her. Botan then hit her with her oar, and Shippo stuck his tongue out. The wind sorceress glowered. Kurama sweat dropped.

**

* * *

**

Yusuke and Hiei fanned out the dust with their hands that emerged from the trapdoor. Hiei drew his sword and jumped in. Yusuke followed. It was dark. Not just nighttime dark in a city; it was pitch black. Yusuke groped to find a wall to lead the wall.

"Um, Hiei," he said.

"What is it now?"

"Are walls supposed to be squishy and slimey?"

"What?" asked Hiei.

"I said-"

"I know what you said, you moron! Why the hell would a wall be squishy and slimey?"

"I don't know! I just asked you that!" hissed Yusuke.

"Quiet!" said Hiei. A moment later, he added, "Do you hear that?"

"What? You mean that weird noise?"

If Yusuke could see Hiei, he would see the fire demon's fingers just itching to strangle him. Hiei composed himself. "Yes, that weird noise," he said through gritted teeth.

"I think the wall is moving," said Yusuke.

"Are you still touching the wall?"

"Well, I'm trying to figure out what it is. Why don't you just use your third eye or light a fire?"

"Don't you think I've tried? The aura here mixed in with the miasma is blocking it. Besides, if I light a fire and Naraku is really down here, the element of surprise would be taken away," explained Hiei.

"Really? And here I was wondering the same thing," said a third person.

**

* * *

CrazyDreamerGirl: **See, this chapter came out pretty fast. Sorry it's so short though, but the good thing is that I finished all the chapters that lead up to the epilogue, so there will be fast updates, unless I forget. Please review!

Thank you JoannaKuwabara, Hopelessly Hopefull, kahuffstix, Killshea Kavani, loveanime18 for reviewing!


	25. The Mission's End Part III

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 25: The Mission's End Part III**

Miroku's back was up against the wall. Any moment now, he would die, and his mission would be all for naught. He couldn't even use his Wind Tunnel in the fear that he would suck young Kohaku into the endless void in his hand. His staff was flung earlier away from him when he was hit.

He dug into his sleeve to find a sutra; there were none. "That's right, I used the last of my sutras for those demons," he muttered.

He closed his eyes for his inevitable end, but it didn't come.

Kohaku was not in front of him anymore, and Naraku was busy fighting someone else. But who? It was Kuwbara. Bless his soul.

He saw Sango begin to stir. He rushed immediately to her side. "What happened?" she asked.

"We were attacked by Naraku, although I'm pretty sure it's a demon puppet, and I believe Kohaku is unconscious," explained Miroku.

Sango gave him a confused look. She sat up. Kohaku was indeed unconscious, and the puppet was fighting Kuwabara.

"Come on, let's help him," said Sango.

Miroku nodded.

They rushed into battle. Sango used her boomerang to cut his tentacles off. The puppet turned towards her, ready to strike, but Kuwabara cut its head off.

"Ha! Take that!" yelled Kuwabara.

"It's not dead yet," said Miroku.

"What?"

"He's right," the head said.

The body followed the voice and put its head back on.

"That is disgusting," said Kuwabara, eye twitching.

"Tell me about it," said Sango.

"Aim for its heart; we'll distract it," whispered Miroku to Kuwabara.

He nodded. Miroku and Sango began attacking the puppet like there was no tomorrow. With the puppet distracted, Kuwabara could easily kill it.

Kuwabara jumped into the air, ready to strike his heart, when a tentacle came out of nowhere, and Kuwabara was hurled into the wall. Another tentacle emerged from the puppet's body and aimed for his heart.

"One wrong move, and I'll kill the boy."

Miroku and Sango put their weapons down, and glanced at each other with uneasy expressions.

Kuwabara gritted his teeth. "No, I will not be the reason why we fail." New found energy flowed into his sword. It extended into a long pole that penetrated the puppet's heart. It didn't even have a chance to react.

Kuwabara slumped onto the ground, panting heavily.

"Are you alright?" asked Sango, rushing to his side.

"I'm fine, just used up too much energy."

"You're in no shape to battle the real Naraku. We should take you somewhere safe outside the castle," said Miroku.

Kuwabara lifted his head. "Watch out!" he yelled.

**

* * *

**

Kurama was frantically looking for Hiei and Yusuke. He had managed to catch up to Inuyasha and Kagome a moment before. Everywhere they turned, there were signs of them there; it was either a door torn apart, destroyed walls, or scorch marks. It was definitely their doing.

They skidded to a stop when the saw a room in especially bad shape. The door was on the floor. It was probably kicked, suspected Kurama. The walls were dented and the tatami mats were slashed into a little pieces. _That's beyond a doubt Hiei's doing, _thought Kurama.

But the one thing that caught their attention was the open trapdoor in the middle of the floor. They cautiously walked towards it, weapons drawn.

**

* * *

**

Yusuke quickly took his hand off the squishy, slimey wall that he was sure was alive. He managed to find Hiei, and was about to wipe his hands on his cape when Hiei grabbed his wrist in an inescapable hold.

"Don't you dare," hissed Hiei.

"Geez, who knew you were so obsessed with your clothes," muttered Yusuke.

"Are two finished bickering like an old married couple?" the voice said.

"No!" Hiei and Yusuke yelled in opposite directions.

They began coughing. Miasma was slowly filling up the confines of the same room. "Naraku's doing," caughed Yusuke. They jumped back out the way they came. They landed in front of Inuyasha, Kagome, and Kurama.

"Well, what's in there?" asked Kagome.

"Naraku, and I suggest running," said Yusuke.

He came crashing through the opening in the floor, completely destroying the room they were in. Debris rained down upon them. Inuyasha protected Kagome and the rest were covered with wreckage.

**

* * *

**

Sango and Miroku turned around. It was Kohaku, but it was too late. Sango tried to protect herself by putting her arm in front of the attack. It was feeble attempt, but that was all she could do. She expected warm blood to be gushing from her arm, but it never came. She opened her eyes. Miroku had pushed her out of the way. He was badly hurt. His chest was slashed, and blood was flowing profusely.

Kohaku turned towards her. Kuwabara couldn't help. He could hardly stand. She had left her large boomerang a few yards away from her. She stood up, drawing her sword. The sickle's chain wrapped around her sword and pulled it out of her hand.

"Kohaku, please stop. It's me, your sister Sango."

Kohaku's blank eyes blinked. A flash of emotion and turmoil appeared in his eyes. "Sister," he said.

"Yes, please remember. Please."

He dropped both weapons in his hand. He grabbed his head and shook it. "No, no, stop! Leave me alone!"

"Kohaku, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help," said Sango, kneeling beside him. She took his hands and lowered them. "Relax, relax, you can fight Naraku's mind control." She stroked his hair comfortingly.

Kohaku pushed her away. His eyes became blank again. He picked up his sickle. Sango's eyes darted to her sword and Kohaku. She grabbed her sword and pushed Kohaku down. She ran to Miroku. He was still bleeding, and it wasn't slowing down.

Kohaku stealthily walked behind her. He raised his weapon to deal the killing blow, and began lowering it.

**

* * *

**

Botan and Shippo looked onwards as a disatrous explosion happened. One moment the castle was in one piece, and the next, about half of it was in ruins. Kagura even stopped all her struggling to see what occurred.

"I hope they're alright," murmured Botan.

"I wish we could do something," said Shippo.

"Like what? We can't fight. We would just get in the way."

Shippo looked thoughtful for a moment. He rubbed his chin.

**

* * *

**

Naraku stood at the site of the wreckage. He smirked evilly as he enjoyed the scenery. He doubted that they died, but there was a slight chance. His caught the movemnt of one of the beams that held the ceiling up. It was moving. He watched as something red emerged. It was Inuyasha, holding Kagome. He set her down.

"Are you alright, Kagome?" he asked.

"Yeah, are you?"

"Don't worry about me. Where are the others?"

"They might be still buried," said Kagome, voice full of worry.

Inuyasha blocked Kagome from Naraku's view. "Find the others, I'll deal with this bastard," he whispered to Kagome over his shoulder, holding his Tetsusaiga.

She nodded and began digging through the rubble. She grabbed a tuft of black hair. It yelped. A head emerged, gasping for air. It was Yusuke. He shook his head to get rid of all the dust. Kagome helped him up.

"Did you see the others down there?" she asked.

"You mean they're still buried?" he asked.

She nodded. Yusuke frantically began digging, looking for his friends.

**

* * *

**

"Kohaku!" boomed a voice.

Sango turned around. It was Kagura. _I thought Kuwabara and Kurama took care of her, _she thought. Kohaku walked to her side. It was then that Sango realized that he was going to kill her. She gulped. Her own brother almost killed her without her realizing it. It was very unnerving.

Kagura looked to be in one piece. She was holding her fan in front of her face. Her clothes looked to be beyond clean for someone who was just in a fight. Kuwabara looked up.

"But Kurama tied you up!" said Kuwabara.

"Did you really think that a couple of vines could hold me? Well, guess again! I am back and ready to get my revenge. Since that red head isn't here, I'll have to release all my anger on you three," said Kagura, venom in her voice. She turned to Kohaku. "Kohaku, you have no more business with these people. I'll take care of everything."

"Yes," he replied in a monotonous voice.

"Good. I want you to wait in the last room down the hall. I'll join you there when I'm finished with them," ordered Kagura, using her fan to point to Kuwabara, Sango, and Miroku.

Kohaku nodded and left. Kagura waited a few moments to make sure Kohaku was out of earshot. She walked towards them and smirked.

"Well, well, well, what should I do with you three?"

**

* * *

**

With Yusuke's help, Kagome found Hiei and Kurama. They were unharmed. They joined Inuyasha in battle. But Kurama lingered back. He turned to Kagome.

"Where is the jewel located?" asked Kurama.

"Um, lemme see," replied Kagome. A few moments later, she continued, "His heart. Why did you want to know?"

"I need you to listen carefully and do exactly what I say." Kurama whispered the rest of his plan into her ear.

"Are you sure it'll work?" she asked.

He nodded.

**

* * *

**

Sango stood up, sword pointed at Kagura. "Don't you dare come any closer."

"Or what? You'll try to kill me with that flimsy sword of yours," she taunted. She waved her fan and a small gust of wind knocked the sword out of Sango's hand.

Kagura laughed.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha and Hiei were cutting of Naraku's tentacles constantly, and it did nothing. Yusuke aimed a Spirit Gun right for his torso, but a giant hole opened up where it was supposed to hit, and the attack went right through it. Yusuke cursed loudly.

Kurama slashed through all the tentacles and landed a punch on his chest. His whip wrapped around Naraku's neck and he pulled. His head almost came off. It was still connected to his head by a fine, fleshly line. Naraku pulled his head back on.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. "Wind Scar!" he yelled.

The attack hit its target. The attack leveled the surrounding trees and hills in the area, leaving scar like imprints on the ground. Something stirred in the rubble. A large, fleshy monster appeared. It morphed back into Naraku. He laughed.

"Nothing can stop me now!" he said, smugly.

Hiei scowled. He charged into battle, aiming for his head. Naraku's arms turned into the strange, fleshy blobs and took Hiei's sword. His tentacles pushed Hiei back.

Yusuke used his Shot Gun. Naraku did not expect an attack like that. Several blue, bullet-like energy blasts hit. He staggered back, dropping the sword. Hiei ran and grabbed his sword. He wiped the flesh off and joined the others. Inuyasha took this chance for some close combat. He feverishly attacked him with his large sword. He made several gashes and cut off many limbs.

Inuyasha stepped back, panting. Naraku had fallen to the ground, but he was far from dead.

**

* * *

**

Outside, torn vines were scattered all over the ground.

**

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CrazyDreamerGirl: **This chapter is slightly longer than the last one. So...review and you shall have the next chapter sooner than expected. I need more reviews people! Don't make me threaten you all!

Thank you JoannaKuwabara, loveanime18, kahuffstix, Candelabra for reviewing.


	26. The Mission's End Part IV

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Chapter 26: The Mission's End Part IV**

Inuyasha, Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei kept their distance from Naraku in case it was a trap. He did not stir from his spot on the ground. Kagome was hidden behind part of a wall that had not fallen. She held her bow and arrows like her life depended on it. Kurama's words rang through her ears. She ignored the sounds of battle with those words; she ignored the shouts, the curses, and the explosions. She had to wait until the ideal moment. One second off could ruin the entire plan.

And so, she continued waiting, hidden, while her friends battled, even though her friends were being hurt. She waited, despite the fact her friends could die at any moment.

**

* * *

**

Kagura's laughter was cut short by shrill shout.

"Stop tormenting them! You had your fun!" yelled a voice from nowhere.

A second later, a certain grim reaper appeared out of nowhere, landed next to Miroku, and began examining his wounds. She concentrated all the power she had to save him.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I got into my character a little too much," said Kagura. Luckily Botan's back was to her, or she would see the angel of death rolling her eyes.

Kagura walked up to the others. "No hard feelings," she said, extending her hand to Kuwabara.

He eyed it suspiciously. "Oh, right," she said.

**

* * *

**

They were battered, cut, and bruised, and still Naraku had not tired. Kurama waited patiently for the perfect timing. No mistakes.

Inuyasha used another Wind Scar, and this was followed by a fire attack from Hiei. Any normal half demon would have been dead by now, but not Naraku. He kept regenerating any lost limbs and gashes. They had yet to see him bleed. It was just like watching the Elder Toguro fight again. At least Naraku couldn't move his internal organs around.

Kurama dodged a tentacle slaming into the ground. He raised his whip and attacked. Yusuke quickly moved in and punched him until he fell to the ground. Kurama moved back behind the rest. He threw a rock over the wall where Kagome was hiding. Kagome peeked above the ruined wall and saw Kurama nod in her direction.

It was time.

**

* * *

**

Kagura withdrew her hand and stood still. Then, there was a POOF, and a cloud of smoke. The smoke drifted apart, revealing a certain fox demon.

"Shippo!" exclaimed Sango and Kuwabara.

Shippo nervously scratched his head. "Yeah," he said, smiling sheepishly.

Sango bent down next to him and hit him on the head.

"What was that for?"

"For scaring the living daylights out of me! Since when did you get so good in your transformations?"

"Kurama's training has been really paying off. Not only can I make my tail disappear completely, I can mimic voices without missing a beat, and I can use their powers to a certain degree," explained Shippo.

"Kurama did all that?" asked a bewildered Kuwabara. "Wow, he really is a miracle worker..."

"Well, he did say that the stuff I learned usually takes a couple years, not weeks," added Shippo.

Sango blinked. "So, that was all you? That's amazing! Even Kohaku believed you!"

"Shippo is an eager learner. I'm not surprised he learned all that so fast," said Botan. She stood up. "Well, Miroku will be fine, but it would be wise not to move him until the wound properly clots."

"Thank you, Botan," said Sango.

"No problem. It was the least I could I do since I'm not much of a fighter, but we really should get real bandages once this all over," replied Botan. She walked over to Kuwabara to see if any wounds he had needed healing.

**

* * *

**

Naraku laughed as he lay on the ground. Kagome got in position without anyone noticing, except for Kurama.

The red head gave the signal for his plants. Vines shot out of Naraku's chest and bound him to ground. His arms and legs were incapacitated as well. The vines were turning him into a green coccoon.

"When did you do that?" asked Yusuke.

"When I punched him in the chest," answered Kurama.

"Nice."

Inuyasha smirked, but that smirk was wiped clean from his face when he saw Naraku rip through the vines and stand up. He laughed.

"Did you really think that could stop me? These are demon plants. They can't affect me. I'll just absorb them and become stronger," said Naraku.

He began the absorption process. He then proceeded to put up a barrier, but was interrupted by a yell from Kurama.

"Now!"

Kagome quickly aimed and shot her Spirit Arrow. A flurry of pink energy spiraled around her arrow. It hit Naraku straight in the heart.

Naraku watched on with a shocked expression. It hit the Shikon Jewel. It shattered for the second time, sending them across the countryside.

The power that he had acquired from the jewel was gone. No more regenerating or absorbing. He was powerless.

Inuyasha smiled. He raised his sword in the air and brought it down for his Wind Scar attack. Yusuke raised his arm for his Spirit Gun. He aimed and shot. The energy from both attacks combined together to form a blue orb with golden streaks.

Naraku was horrified. He put up a barrier, but it useless. It was too weak to stand up to the combined attack. It hit, completely obliterating him. The attack surged through his entire being, destroying every cell, hair particle, and just about everything of his existence.

They watched on with satisfaction.

Naraku was finally dead.

**

* * *

**

Miroku's eyes fluttered open. Sango immediately rushed to his side. He struggled to sit up.

"You shouldn't strain yourself like that. You're too injured. Your wound could open up again," said Sango, full of worry.

"I'm fine," said Miroku. He unraveled the prayer beads on his right hand. They watched on with curiosity. He stared at his hand with shock and happiness.

"His Wind Tunnel..." began Botan.

"It's gone," finished Sango.

"That means Naraku's dead," surmised Kuwabara.

Miroku's face broke into a smile and tears of joy streamed down his face. Sango began crying as well. Botan cried, and Kuwabara and Shippo dabbed away the tears that were threatening to fall, but it was no use. They cried for their friend too. He was free! No more curse! No more impending doom! He could live life without that nagging feeling in the back of his head telling him that he could die at any moment of the day.

**

* * *

CrazyDreamerGirl: **I apologize for the shortness.This was the last chapter before the epilogue. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I liked making it. The epiloguewill be posted next, and then this story will officially be finished. All unanswered questions, such as what happened to Kikyo, will be covered in the epilogue. I'm so sad now! I love this story! I don't want it to end!

Thank you Anonymous, BballAnimeLover89, loveanime18, JoannaKuwabara, can chocolate heal a lonely heart, kahuffstix, shadowhawk2716, Vitanie Tora for reviewing.

I officially have over 200 reviews! I'm so happy! Thank you all!


	27. Epilogue: It's Not Good Bye, It's See Ya

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AT BOTTOM! READ!**

**The Feudal Era Across the Street**

**Epilogue: It's Not Good Bye, It's See Ya Later**

"...and furthermore, you all will be made honorary Spirit Detectives," announced Koenma.

A couple days had passed since Naraku had been defeated. The jewel had been shattered once again, but that was a minor set back. Koenma even came to the feudal era to congratulate everyone on a job well done, well, after yelling about the jewel being shattered again.

They had been celebrating for days for Naraku's end. Currently, they were lounging about in Kaede's village, resting. A few of them had bad hangovers, namely Yusuke and Miroku. Kohaku rolled his eyes at the two. Sango stood next to him, smiling sweetly.

After the battle, Naraku's spell over Kohaku was broken. He remembered everything, even how the demon slayers died. He was quite broken up about that, but as long as he had Sango, he could get through it. Kilala jumped onto his shoulder. He petted her affectionately.

"Now, about the jewel," began Koenma, "I'm leaving you-" he pointed to Inuyasha and Kagome "-in charge of making sure the jewel doesn't fall into the wrong hands again. I trust that won't be too hard. I'll have a grim reaper check up on you every once in awhile." He smiled mischievously. Botan rolled her eyes. She knew exactly who it was, and it wasn't her.

Koenma turned around to face his 'employees' from the present. "You are no longer needed in the past. It's time for you to go back. Everything here is in very capable hands."

"Do we really have to go?" complained Yusuke. "I like it here."

Koenma rolled his eyes. "Yes, you have to go. Say your good byes."

Yusuke and the rest really didn't want to leave. They had gotten used to the past, and hanging out with their new friends. They weren't so different after all. They reluctantly began their good byes, and that brought upon a whole wave of memories and good times.

"Remember Hiei's uniform," chuckled Kagome as she gave Kurama a hug good bye.

Hiei glowered. It was not the high point of the mission.

_"The uniform is too big," Hiei mumbled. _

_Yusuke and Kuwabara began laughing hysterically. Genkai held the uniform in front of him. The sleeves were longer by about four inches and the pants were longer by five. The two laughed harder. Hiei gave then a glare so horrible that his Jagan began glowing underneath his bandana. _

_"All we have to do is roll it up," Kurama said, trying to supress his laughter. _

_"He's right. Besides I don't know how to sew," Genkai said._

"Very funny," mumbled Hiei, sending death glares at everyone. Everyone that was not in the future was completely lost.

"How about that whole fiasco when they just arrived," said Sango, smiling brightly.

Inuyasha glowered. That was not a very happy memory.

_"WHY, I HAVE NEVER MET ANOTHER HUMAN OR DEMON AS STUBBORN OR ARROGANT AS YOU!" Sango shouted. "SIT!" Kagome shouted. "YOU HAVE NO MANNERS WHATSOEVER!" Miroku shouted. "SIT! AND YOU ARE PUSHY AND IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK TO!" Kagome shouted. Inuyasha tried to climb out of the hole, until there was another "SIT!" _

_"But," Inuyasha tried saying. "SIT!"_

"That was priceless," said Yusuke, wiping his eyes. He was laughing so much that tears were forming. "What about the time when Kagome yelled at binky breath? That was hilarious!"

Koenma groaned. Kagome blushed a little, suddenly becoming interested with her shoes.

_"YOU ARE THE INCOMPETENT ONE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT NARAKU CAN REALLY DO! HE HAS DESTROYED COUNTLESS LIVES THROUGH HIS TRICKERY AND RUTHLESSNESS!" Koenma was taken back by this outburst from Kagome. No one had ever yelled at him like this, except maybe his father. This girl had guts. "AND NARAKU ENJOYS HURTING PEOPLE EMOTIONALLY! AND WE ARE DOING THE BEST WE CAN TO FIND HIM!" Koenma gave a great shudder. Kagome has a good set of lungs. _

_Yusuke clapped for Kagome. "Bravo, Kagome, bravo. I didn't know you had it in you. You actually yelled worse than Keiko, and longer," he said. Kagome blushed from embarassment. Botan hit him upside the head. _

"Oh, what about the time when Kurama transformed? That was awesome!" exclaimed Shippo, bouncing up and down next to Kurama. Those two foxes had become very close. Kurama taught Shippo things more valuable than a few techniques and attacks. He taught him that friends were more important than anything, and messing with their minds every once in awhile could prove to be very entertaining. Like the time Shippo transformed into Kurama, making it seem like there were two of him, or when Shippo transformed into Kagura.

"That was cool," agreed Inuyasha. "I did have my doubts about you being some great fox demon, but you proved me wrong. You _are_ strong."

_Kurama's claws grew out. His silver tail and ears came out gradually. His hair was now completely silver and he was taller. He had transformed into Youko Kurama. He was wearing his usual white outfit that consisted of the white sleeveless shirt and the white pants. _

"Well, my favorite memory is when we finally defeated Naraku," smiled Miroku, glancing at his right hand.

Everyone voiced in their agreement. That was one of the reasons why they were here. Now that he was gone, there was no reason to stay. Inuyasha and the others could easily gather the shards without their help. It saddened them. The past had grown on them.

They frowned. They had managed to put off their good byes for just a little bit, but now the time had come.

"Well, I guess this is good bye," said Inuyasha, holding his hand out for a shake.

"No, it's not good bye, it's see ya later," said Yusuke, shaking his hand.

"Definitely. See ya later guys," said Kuwabara.

And so, two great teams parted ways. They watched as Yusuke and company climbed into the well and disappeared. It had been an incredible journey that none of them would ever forget. They all learned something from one another.

"Friends no matter?" said Yusuke before leaving.

"Yeah, friends," agreed Inuyasha, smiling.

"Come visit me at the shrine," said Kagome.

"Of course," replied Yusuke and left.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha and the rest walked back to Kaede's hut in silence. It had been a very happy and depressing day. They entered, not making a sound. They say down quietly, enjoying each other's company.

"So, what are you three going to do now that Naraku's dead?" asked Kagome, addressing Sango, Miroku, and Kohaku.

They looked at her, thoughtfully. Sango was the first to answer. "Well, I want to take Kohaku back to the demon slayers village."

Sadness flickered in Kagome's eyes. Sango had become a sister to her. Without her, she would be stuck with two crazy men, that is if Miroku didn't leave.

"You didn't let me finish," said Sango, placing her hand on Kagome's shoulder. Kagome looked up at her with hope filled eyes. "After our visit, we're going to come back and help you and Inuyasha find the other shards." She smiled.

Kagome's face brightened up. She jumped up and gave Sango a bone crushing hug. She suddenly pulled away, looking distraught. "You don't have to. I mean, you finally got Kohaku back. You two should spend some time together."

Sango chuckled. Kohaku answered for her. "We talked it over last night, and we both agreed that helping you would be the best way to spend time together, and we would stop other demons from using the shards for evil purposes."

Tears formed in Kagome's eyes. "Thank you," she murmured.

Inuyasha turned to Miroku. "What about you, monk? What are you going to do?"

"Well..." he said, looking thoughtful. "If Sango is joining you, then I will, too."

Sango turned red. She slapped Miroku with as much as strength she could muster up, which was usually more than enough to kill a demon. Miroku fell to the ground with a dazed look on his face. Kohaku blushed.

"Does he do that all the time?" asked Kohaku.

"That's not even the worst of it," Sango muttered.

Inuyasha exited the hut. Kagome followed him, leaving the rest behind to most likely hurt Miroku. She almost felt sorry for him, almost. _I wonder where he's going, _thought Kagome. Inuyasha was aimlessly walking away from the village. She saw Inuyasha stop at the Bone Eater's Well. He peered down.

"Inuyasha," she said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah."

"When we collect the shards again, are you going to use the jewel to become a full demon?"

Inuyasha didn't answer. He turned around to face her, deep in thought. "I can't necessarily use the jewel as long as Kohaku needs a shard to live, now can I?" he said, and smiled.

Kagome smiled and ran up to him. She gave him a tight hug. Inuyasha blushed and hugged her back.

**

* * *

**

She sighed as she watched Inuyasha and Kagome embrace each other. They belonged together, after all, she was dead. She flew off into the sky without a look back. But why did Koenma have to make everything so hard? She had to keep coming back to see them, and old feelings stirred up inside of her; jealousy, love, hate, and acceptance.

She would figure out a way to see them without being spotted or the need to speak to them. After all, she could see the shards as well. It wouldn't be too hard to figure out their progress. She sighed and looked up into cloudless sky.

Koenma was quite generous with the 'punishment.' He even gave her a temporary body to be able to do this. _It won't be too bad, hopefully. Only another 500 years to go, and I'm in the past, _she thought. She noticed a lone ghost wandering aimlessly in the sky. A grim reaper's job was never done.

"Who are you?" the frightened spirit asked.

"I am the pilot of the River Styx. You may call me Kikyo."

There was a third choice. Kikyo smiled and escorted the spirit to the afterlife.

**

* * *

**

Kagura leaned against a tree, glaring angrily at a certain dog demon. "Why did you save me? I could have gotten out myself," she said angrily to Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru didn't answer right away. He glanced at Rin, Kanna, and Jaken. Rin was trying everything to get Kanna to play with her. The pale child just stared at her with a blank expression. Jaken was mumbling angrily about the whole situation.

He didn't even face Kagura when he answered. "Tell me, what are you going to do now that Naraku is dead?"

Kagura was shocked. "Is that why you brought me here? To find out what I'm going to do?"

No response. Kagura scowled. "If you must know, I really have no idea what I'm going to do. Now that I'm free, I have nothing else to look forward. I'm my own master. I was expecting to feel much better, ecstatic maybe, but I feel nothing."

"Strange. The one thing you looked forward to is now what you are dreading," said Sesshomaru indifferently.

"Well, if you put it that way, you can even make an abused slave stay with their master," replied Kagura.

"Clearly you have nothing to do, so why don't you join us until you think of something. I'm sure it'll keep you out of trouble for a little while."

Kagura tried her best to hide her surprise, but it was useless. She stared at him for a few seconds, making sure those words came out of his mouth. She didn't know if she should be flattered or insulted. But without a moment's hesitation, she agreed.

**

* * *

**

In the present time, Yusuke and the rest had just climbed out of the well. Koenma and Botan left them to go to Spirit World. The rest began walking to their home across the street. On the way, they saw Sota, and Kagome's mother and granfather. They bid them good bye.

They stopped at their doorstep. "Feels good to be back," said Kuwabara.

"It sure does. I can't wait to see my mother," said Kurama.

"I wonder how Keiko's holding up," wondered Yusuke.

Little did he know that Keiko was waiting for him right behind the door, ready to give him the beating of a lifetime. He opened the door, expecting to just see Genkai, but he saw three other women.

Keiko was glaring at him, arms crossed. Shizuru was standing behind her, smoking. Her expression was indifferent, but her actions proved otherwise. She punched Kuwabara right on the nose, and went back to her spot behind Keiko. Yukina glanced nervously at Shizuru, and rushed towards Kuwabara to see if he was alright.

Hiei was seething. Yusuke and Kurama chuckled quietly, but that was cut short from Keiko's slap. A red handprint was left on his cheek. She huffed and turned back inside.

"Oh, come on, Keiko! Whatever I did, I'm sorry!" yelled Yusuke.

"You don't even know what you're apologizing for!" Keiko yelled back.

"Women," muttered Yusuke angrily. "Oh, hey, Grandma." He rubbed his cheek.

"Dimwit," said Genkai, acknowledging his presence.

"So, how did living across the street from that old man go?" Kurama asked Genkai.

"Since those three came, it was more bearable. Keiki lied to him, telling him that I was either not home or sick; Yukina was in the background, smiling her innocent smile with those big, puppy dog eyes, and Shizuru was right next to her, smoking and cracking her knuckles. It was a wonderful sight," replied Genkai blissfully, remembering all those times that he went home screaming. She chuckled darkly.

Kurama smiled nervously and backed away a little.

Everything was back to normal again, but how long would it last? With Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, something always came up that's out of the ordinary. They only hoped that this time it would last long enough to live their lives without much interruption.

The four friends ran inside to enjoy the luxuries of the future, and thus, ended another mission.

**

* * *

CrazyDreamerGirl: **I'm so depressed now. This story is probably the only reason I kept coming back to fanfiction and not just deleting my account. I had an awesome time typing this story. I let my imagination run wild, and I would spend tons of time during the day trying to figure how each character would act in each scene. Now, I'll have to occupy myself with something else.

I'm hoping to make a sequel, yes, a sequel. I'm not ready to part with this story just yet, but it's still a maybe. Be patient, because I haven't thought of a storyline for the sequel. I'm hoping I'll post it by the end of summer, but it depends if I come up with a good idea. If any of you have any suggestions, I'll be more than happy to receive them. I always like to have my readers have some sort say in my stories. If it's not posted by the end of August, please check out my profile under upcoming stories. There will be some sort of explanation.

Now, I want to thank all my reviews and readers! Even if you didn't review, it's alright. As long as you stuck with me and my random updates, I want to thank you. I especially want to thank the reviewers of the last chapter: JoannaKuwabara, kahuffstix, astricjaster, loveanime18, Mitsukia-No-Hane.

Since there won't be another chapter after this, I want to give any reviewers a thank you ahead of time. So... THANK YOU!

The End


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